Busy Fall

(Photos taken in the school's parking lot)

 (Photo taken from our bedroom window.)

Life's been pretty busy around our house this Fall. It has been a colorful and fun season around here, and we're glad to be enjoying it this year. Here's a recap and a sampling of our life this Fall in pictures:

Liam's school:
Schlepping Liam to and from school every day, I'm starting to feel like a half day is just too little time for him. I have to drive him everyday because the pre-k that's walking distance from where we live closed after the last school year. I have already told him that next year he will be gone all day. To my surprise, he exclaimed, "Oh yes! I love school! I can't wait to go for all day!" Me, too! Perhaps then, I can get to do a little more around here without having to stop projects at the halfway mark. He is growing so fast and learning in leaps and bounds.

He played a turkey in his very first school play and had two lines. All the children did remarkably well considering all the parents had their cameras out constantly taking pictures. We all looked like paparazzi photographing celebrities. So cute! Bill took lots of photos with his fancy camera while I mostly shot video. Oh and Liam had two Thanksgiving dinners: after the school play and on Thanksgiving Day itself.

On our daily drive home from school, he almost always requests pizza. One day, I tried to get him to try a slice with chicken and broccoli, but he wouldn't hear of such a thing. It's plain pizza or nothing at all. I ordered a chicken marsala slice because it looked so darn good. (When you're really hungry, anything looks great.) He shoved a piece of chicken into his mouth and to my surprise, he really liked it. In fact, he closed his eyes, went "Mmmm!" and said that this was his new favorite. So now, every time we drive past that pizzeria he always requests a slice of chicken marsala pizza. I have to talk fast to get him distracted enough so that he doesn't realize that we're driving past his favorite pizzeria.

The house:
Things are looking better and better in our house. Bill has almost completed the installation of the banister in the basement, so it is no longer "the stairs of death." I can't even begin to tell you how many near falls we have experienced, especially by me hauling the laundry up and down those stairs, and Liam with toys he manages to find down there.
 
The bigger news, though, is our new roof! You may recall that Hurricane Irene dropped a tree on the back of our house. Well, I would love to say that the experience with the insurance company went smoothly, but it didn't. Perhaps if we had suffered severe structural damage like a roof collapse, then the claim would have been cut and dry. We have gone back and forth for months now and we still have some unresolved matters. We are crossing our fingers that they will err on the side of logic and fairness. We are very happy with our new roof. It has created a different feel to our house, making it feel more secure, quieter and somehow warmer. We went with onyx black to match the window framing and white gutters, of course, which will match the "white" siding once we have saved the money to restore them to its original whiteness.

In the kitchen:
I have done some baking, too, from scratch, with good results. Pumpkin pie made with fresh pumpkin (not out of the can), doughnuts, and my boys made me a birthday cake. The cake picture here is of course from a bakery. My mom brought it over on on Thanksgiving Day to celebrate my birthday again. How sweet of her! Another Thanksgiving feast went by, only this time, I have to say, it was the best turkey I have ever cooked, which is saying a lot since I normally cook a fabulous turkey. This year's though was more flavorful and the leftover turkey made for some very delicious soups. I must mention also that Liam helped me by bagging the last minute groceries for our feast. So darling!

Illness:
As predicted, we have had our share of colds and whatnot. It never fails. At the start of the school year, all the kids go through their rounds of colds and viruses, because, you know, "sharing is caring!" Year after year, it is almost guaranteed that I will fall sick anytime between Halloween and New Year's Eve, and this year has not been the exception. You may recall last year's beast of a flu. This time, despite the mild Autumn, I came down with a cold accompanied by a nasty cough that apparently lingers on for months. This has made my life so uncomfortable, causing me to place many important projects on hold, including the crafty stuff and this blog.

Shared computer time:
I do manage to squeeze in a little time to check out friend's blogs, mostly because Liam really wants to see pictures of his friends, etc., but because I am now sharing my computer with Liam, I get very little time on it. I mostly have to wait until he is fast asleep to get anything done. It really couldn't be helped. It was just a matter of time. He begs to see pbs kids, sesame street, qubo, and some other stuff including vids on you tube. The boy can also google and always yells out for me to spell certain words, mostly Star Wars related. It's pretty hilarious as is his growing vocabulary. He really is learning in leaps and bounds. I can hardly believe that he will turn 5 in January.

Yup! We've been quite busy around here!

Liam's wardrobe:
You may recall me mentioning Liam's wardrobe issues last year. His karate uniform pretty much cured him if it. This year, thanks to the generosity of my family in Texas, we have not had to buy a single article of clothing for Liam (except for underwear, socks and shoes). My cousin's three year old son is so big and tall that he outgrows his clothes at lightening speed. As a result, Liam has inherited so many wonderful clothes! We are humbled by their generosity and feel truly blessed. One more thing... you will notice in the pictures that he is diving into the package, well my aunt and cousin also threw in some hot wheels and matchbox cars.What a lucky little boy!

So there you have it. There are a few more photos I should include, but can't seem to find. I will insert them when I do. If there's one thing I can't stand is not being able to find my photos. Dear tech guy, please stop moving my files around without telling about it first. Thanks.

Irene

While some people yawned during Hurricane Irene, calling it hyped up and boring, a tree fell on my house. (Seriously, I can't understand that way of thinking. Don't people watch the news and take into account other people's feelings and sufferings?)

Neighbor's tree on our house

(Photos taken from our backyard on August 28, 2011

during the eye of the hurricane)

It was hot and muggy that Saturday night and we were all tired (from all the hurricane prep work), sticky and very uncomfortable, especially Liam. After he fell asleep on our sofa, Bill carried him upstairs to our bedroom, the only room in the house with air conditioning at the moment. We planned to only have him sleep there for a little while and then move downstairs to the basement to sleep there together for the rest of the night. Bill and I remained awake watching the news coverage downstairs on the first floor. Then, just before three o'clock in the morning on Sunday, we heard the boom. Bill immediately ran upstairs grabbed Liam and brought him downstairs to the basement. We grabbed our 72-hour emergency bags, some food and water, and hunkered down. Liam was crying and scared for a bit, but then we popped in a DVD and he was fine. He fell asleep again moments later. Bill and Liam did manage to sleep for at least a few hours, but I remained awake the whole time. I tried closing my eyes, but I just couldn't. The ferocious winds and powerful gusts kept me awake the whole time waiting for another boom.

We were worried about five big trees that are too close to our house. Four of the five trees in question are on our neighbor's property (you know, the abandoned property with the noxious weeds and the boarded up little house that looks like a shack). The tree that fell on our house was one on our neighbor's property on the far side of their backyard actually leaning towards the other neighboring house. Instead, it fell on our house.

The tree hit the roof on the back part of our house. Another tree's branches broke the impact of the fall as that tree came down so that the actual fall onto our house was not as severe. Its own branches also cushioned the fall on the roof. Another factor that might have broken some of the impact is the brick chimney, but we will have to get a professional take a look at it to see if it took a bad hit. Our antenna as well as our neighbor's were also knocked down, though ours is still working. (Yes, we are antenna people. We can't afford satellite or cable TV and the antenna picks up loads of other channels in addition to the standard network channels, including HD radio.)

As for the tree itself, having had a closer look at that tree, it doesn't look particularly strong and healthy. We have been told it is a locust tree and those are very week trees with soft wood. Their leaf system reminds me of poison sumac and it really creeps me out. We could see that its roots were small and thin, either from not being healthy to begin with, or probably from over saturation from the record-braking rainfall we have had this month alone prior to the hurricane. The other neighboring house on the opposite side of my immediate neighbor had complained about that tree just three days prior to the hurricane, but the bank that has taken possession and is supposedly "maintaining" that property refused to do anything about it because they are "still foreclosing" on that property and until they actually have ownership papers, they "cannot" and "will not" do any major stuff to that house.

Part of our food and water storage for emergency use at home.

Our 72-hour emergency kits, also known as "Go Bags"

I still can't believe that a tree fell on our house. Of course, it could have been worse. It could always be worse. Even though I'm so sad right now, I am still so grateful that nothing more serious happened and that we came out of this okay. We prayed and prayed that we would be safe, along with our house and car.

Oh, and we didn't lose power. That was a good thing since our refrigerator and chest freezer were still full.

The tree is now off the house (as of Thursday). That's a good thing, too. We were worried that the weight of the tree would cause more damage. As for the removal of the tree, it actually took a crew of six men, one lift, ropes and pulleys, chain saws, and a machine that I can only describe as a "muncher", ironically called "Hurricane". Those men were all over our backyard and the two neighboring backyards. It was quite an operation since they needed to be careful not to cause any further damage to our house.

Now we're in the middle of the more daunting task of not just cleaning up, but dealing with our insurance company. We pray that all goes well, and that we will be make all the necessary repairs.

We also need to take action with regards to that "abandoned" neighboring property. I want all of their old, crooked, unhealthy trees removed, all of their noxious weeds that poke and hang over our wired fence dead, and that house declared condemned and knocked down once and for all. That's not too much to ask for is it?

Stoop

You may recall this photo from last year. I can't believe it has been a year since we bought our house! Here Liam sits on this old brick stoop which as you can clearly see had old, crumbling mortar. We had the money all saved up to professionally redo the stoop with our neighbor, but then my mother-in-law passed away and we used that money for Bill's airfare to Sydney, Australia.

In collaboration with our next door neighbor, we agreed to slap on some cement to cover the whole thing. A couple of weeks ago, we dove right in and just did it. We fastened all the loose bricks and filled in as many gaps as we could, and then poured on the cement. Needless to say, it was not as easy as we thought it would be. We are fully aware though, that this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a permanent solution, but a temporary fix that we hope will hold up at least a year, until next year's tax returns.

We thought we would have a little fun with it though by placing Liam's hand print, much to his delight of course. Bill thought we should also add our thumbprints.

Slowly but surely, we are getting things done and getting this place together.

City girl learns the hard way

This city girl has a lot to learn. Recognize this notorious trio? I do hope so, for your sake.

I have lived in an apartment building almost my entire life in New York City. I have never had to worry about such noxious weeds in my old Queens neighborhood or in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. These are the ones you encounter in the woods somewhere while hiking or camping. Right? Well, last Saturday I had the displeasure of meeting them right here, in of all places, my very own backyard.

There is a low wired fence between our house and the neighboring house that has been unoccupied for many, many years. That house, if you can call it that because it kind of looks like a shack, is all boarded up, and since there is no maintenance done, the backyard quite frankly looks like a jungle. I honestly don't know how anyone can get away with it and not get penalized.

Anyway, since it is not yet in our budget to replace this fence, I periodically have to go and remove the weeds that poke through and hang over the fence onto our property. I didn't think to wear gloves, so I just yanked them out. I innocently touched my face, neck and shoulder blade. Why? I had my hair pulled up, but the "fly-a-ways" brushed up against my skin, so I naturally smoothed them away from my face and neck. After I finished weeding, I noticed a dark, sappy residue that resembled pine tree sap on my hands. When I went in to wash my hands, I noticed that it wasn't coming off easily with just plain soap and water, so I used a scrub brush and worked really hard to remove it all.

The next day, I felt a little itchy, but since I normally have dry, sensitive skin, didn't think much of it. By the evening, my right eye was getting swollen. Went to bed, only to wake up the next morning with more swelling around the eye and most of my face. Large red blotches started to appear. Since it was hot that day and we hadn't yet installed the A/C, I thought it was sun poisoning or some other heat-related condition.

Well, I woke up on Tuesday with my right eye completely swollen shut and a super swollen face. My sunglasses didn't even fit because my face was so distorted. I grabbed Liam and marched over to my primary care physician. As soon as he saw me walk through the door, he told me to turn around and get myself to the hospital because it was too severe a reaction and that I needed to be treated at the ER. I drove to the doctor and then to the ER with one good eye. I never realized just how hard this would be, but I made it to the ER safely, with Liam in tow I might add, and was seen immediately. Thankfully, I was in and out in about an hour. They shot me up with a steroid and gave me a prescription for more steroids in tablet form to take at home along with an antibiotic. I was instructed to take Claritin during the day, Benadryl at night, smooth on hydrocortizone cream on my face and Calydryl clear on all other affected areas (namely: my neck, shoulder blade, ears, forearm, feet, and the three fingers on my right hand). I wash thoroughly with Tecnu on the really ugly parts and my usual all-natural calendula body wash on the rest of the affected skin. I also found that I had to take Tylenol for the throbbing pain. We installed the A/C that night and I pretty much sat in front of it and a fan the whole time. The steroids have kicked in slowly and my eye is only just slightly puffy today. The rest of me is still pretty much one huge ugly mess.

Needless to say, sleeping has been challenging this week, but the real heartbreaking part is not being able to hug, kiss or snuggle as needed. If Bill or Liam accidentally touch me, I remind them to immediately scrub their hands with hot soapy water. We sleep head to toe to make sure, we don't touch. All in all, this has been an experience I will never forget. I will never forget to put my gardening gloves on and keep them handy every time I need to work in the backyard. I will never forget to look at these pictures so I become completely familiar with them and recognize these poisonous weeds when I encounter them.

"Leaves of three, let them be." Ha! I guess I needed a little more info than just that little rhyme. Watch out for a stem with three leaves because it could be poison ivy or poison oak.

Just in case, here is another look. Beware and please engrave these images into your head.

Celebrations

Let's lump up the year's end activities in one post, shall we?

That horrendous flu back in the beginning of November took a lot out of us. I was still in recovery mode when my birthday rolled in. Thankfully, my birthday came and went rather quietly. We celebrated with Junior's Cheesecake which didn't exactly help my cough and congestion, but I was craving all sorts of comfort foods. Finally recovering from that monster flu was enough reason to celebrate.

We managed to rake and clean up the backyard nice and tidy. We put up the blinds in the living room. We also got to work full speed on the dining room a week before Thanksgiving. We wanted it ready once and for all, especially for our holiday dinners. I wish people could have seen us running around like chickens without a head to try to get the dining room ready just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Bill and I looked like we could have been on a reality TV show with a time clock ticking away. Between bastings, I was vacuuming and helping to remove the painter's tape. Bill was cleaning up, moving furniture, and trying to install the baseboards. Thank goodness Welita was here to help me with Thanksgiving dinner.

We kept it really simple: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and my long-overdue birthday cake from my favorite Latino bakery. We had plenty of leftovers since we ended up having dinner alone with my mother, so we bagged the leftovers and set aside the carcass for turkey soup the next day. A tradition in my family since childhood. Yummy!

He started with dessert, but upon seeing his daddy with a turkey leg, he immediately requested the other one and went to work on it.

I had to tickle Liam to keep him from digging his little fingers into my cake again.

Liam helping Welita make turkey noodle soup
(I got the fake smile. Clearly, he didn't want to be disturbed.)

Two weeks later, we picked up our Christmas tree. 

Liam is holding one of two baby trees that we got as a bonus.

Welita also came over for Christmas Eve and stayed over till the next day. We had turkey dinner (frozen from Thanksgiving) and pumpkin pie. Boring, I know, but my husband is crazy about pumpkin pie, little Liam too (but a la mode). I wanted to make my husband's family's traditional Christmas lasagna, but I just didn't have the time nor the energy to embark on such a project. Actually, I didn't have my late mother-in-law's recipe. Next year, I will make sure to have all of the ingredients to make my mother-in-law's best loved dishes for our holiday dinners.

We decorated graham cracker houses with premium candy (instead of the yucky dollar store candy), so we nibbled away at them carefree for days after Christmas. Liam made out like a bandit with some great toys and clothes. We got a great deal on a game cartridge and he loved his truck. He also got some great clothes from a dear friend, and my aunt and cousin sent him a box full from Texas. We stashed away the rest of the toys we bought on sale before the holidays to give it to him for his birthday the next month.

Our Christmas family photo. 

Liam was in the middle of his wardrobe issues and we couldn't wait any longer. We took a break from decorating our tree and took the pic.

Our window decor

Hooray for our new windows!

 

We were given these glitter pine cones and two baby Christmas "trees". I gave a baby tree to our next door neighbor. Once they are bigger we can plant them outside in our backyards, respectively. We were told they would grow as tall as the Christmas tree we brought home.

Daddy helping Liam play with his new video game cartridge 

(that I bought for $6.49, tax free and free shipping, yipee!)

His hips are so slender that he actually fit in it.

Liam was thrilled to see that Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk.
("Santa" was in such a hurry that he accidentally misspelled reindeer.)

Welita's cool Christmas sweatshirt

Modeling a few of his gifts. 

(The other cute clothing was slightly bigger and has been put away until it fits him comfortably.)

We tried really hard to put Liam down to bed on New Year's Eve, but he knew something was up and wanted in on all the action. He fought bedtime tooth and nail and so the little stinker stayed awake to ring in the new year with us. (Picture me rolling my eyes now.)  To his delight, we rang in the new year with his tambourines and maracas. We even heard fireworks around our neighborhood. Super fun!

"Cheers, Welita!" He finished his sparkling apple cider before I was finished pouring the last glass. (And yes, he peed in bed that night. Happy New Year to me. Grrr!)

We watched Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on the tele and Liam danced the night away.

He wasn't tired at all as evidenced in this pic. I just might have to sedate him next year. Kidding!! Or feed him tons of turkey (Tryptophan!!).

Thus ended 2010 and a decade that brought us:
- the good  
(Bill's wonderful conversion, our marriage, our baby boy, Bill's calling as an LDS Bishop and our new house)
- the bad
(September 11th, and the passing away of dear family members: my wonderful mother-in-law Bette, Bill's sweet grandmother Mary, and my favorite uncle Gonzalo)
- and the ugly  
(the beast of a flu that Liam and I caught at year's end).

This decade, so far, is starting out happy and hopeful too, especially as we continue to celebrate our little Liam's many milestones.

Rooftop

If it's not one thing, it's another. Because the house doesn't give us enough to think about, we need to worry about the surroundings.

We noticed that there were a few tree limbs hanging precariously over our house. Thanks to our dear friend Brother Bonilla, the most troublesome branches were removed in the summer. With the heavy snow and large accumulations lately, I shudder to think what those limbs would have done to our roof. I saw a news report a couple of days ago of some people having to climb onto their roofs to remove all the snow because of water leakage. Thank heavens, Brother Bonilla is also a roofer. He took a closer look at our roof and said we are good. Whew! The removal of the other limbs will have to be done professionally by a tree lopper at some point.

As you can see from the photos, it made for a rather entertaining afternoon watching the two of them up on the roof. Even the children helped with carrying some of the cuttings to a safer place in the backyard, until we could get around to cutting them small enough to fit into our trash bags or boxes.

Two months later, the pile was still there in November. As soon as I felt better from that horrendous flu, I had the missionaries help me. It was their service project for the week. Bill's been so busy at work and on other, shall we say, more urgent projects (like patching up our front stoop). That mess had to be taken care of once and for all, before any backyard animals got any ideas of taking up residence in there. Thank goodness it's well and truly gone. That spot is now reserved for our compost project. Thank heaven for our friends the Bonillas and the missionaries!

And while on the rooftop that warm summer day, with his trusty tool belt (that Liam and I gave him for Father's Day last year) Bill gave the antenna another look.

We decided on forgoing the cable TV expense and opted for the standard network channels via the rooftop antenna. My husband bought one drastically reduced at Rad.Sh. along with all the cabling and installation hardware. This project still needs a bit of tweaking, but so far, we are content with the results. We actually get additional channels as well as HD radio, all for free. And while I will sorely miss the HGTV, Food Network, NatGeo, and Discovery channels, we are happy for free TV. And one less bill to pay makes me want to shout hooray from the rooftop, metaphorically speaking, of course.