Happy New Year (and almost Happy February) from Green Glass Road

Well 2011 will definitely go down in our books as a year to remember. Julia started school, we had an earthquake in Maryland (followed by a hurricane and several floods), and we moved in to our new home that Keith built. Throughout it all we have been blessed with good health, great friends, and a wonderful family.

Christmas was one of the best that I remember. The kids are at a great age to embrace the Christmas magic (undoubtedly fueled by lots of sugar!)

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They also got lots of wonderful gifts from friends and from family. Andrew enjoyed his gifts so much that he wanted to play with them all morning instead of opening more gifts!

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We also spent a great deal of the time with family. First with Keith's mom's family in Maryland, and then with his Dad's family up in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, there was no snow for the kids in Pennsylvania while we were there, but they had lots of fun anyway!

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In between all of the family events and present opening, Keith made a lot of progress in the garage. He was able to get his workshop framed-out, paint the walls, get the electrical panels squared away, and get the garage organized. Not an easy task to do since we have so much stuff in there right now. We look forward to lots of that stuff moving out when the pole barn goes up in March. 2012 has definitely started out well (although busy). I have many personal and professional goals this year, including being a more regular blogger. Hopefully I can get back on a more regular schedule soon and write down updates, no matter how small.

November 7, 2011

We had a great weekend with that included a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Merranko (or Grandma and Grandpa from the "Mountain House" as the kiddos call them). While Keith and his dad did some work at our old house, Therese and I took the kids to the pool, and to the nearby beach on the Cheseapeake Bay. The kids had a great time exploring and finding "treasures". Here are a couple videos from our walk on the beach.

Please click on the two pictures below, to view the video.

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From November 7, 2011

October 31, 2011

Well, apparently the only thing as exciting as Christmas in our house, is the arrival of a cement truck....

Both the kids stared at the truck for an hour as they poured the driveway pads in the front and back of the garage. Andrew might have stayed there all day if we didn't have to go to school. A great babysitting tool, although a bit expensive!

In other news this week, we had our first snowfall. Although I didn't capture it on camera. Perhaps I was in a bit of denial that we could/would ever have a snowflake this early in the year. In truth, we probably had about 25 flakes fall from the sky here, but it was still a bit disconcerting as I am definitely in Halloween, not Christmas mode.

Speaking of Halloween, the kids had a couple opportunities to wear there costumes this year. The first was at Julia's school on Friday night, and the second was this evening for trick-or-treating. As you can see, Julia was Rapunzel (although the wig was short-lived, and rightly so) and Andrew was a robot.

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Julia's school also had a silent auction for scarecrows made by the kid's classrooms. It was a great idea, and the kids loved seeing their scarecrow and other ones. Julia's class had a "Zero the Hero" scarecrow that she is pictured with below. Andrew's favorite scarecrow was the robot.

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Lastly, we finally had the opportunity to go as a family to the pumpkin farm nearby. The kids had a blast seeing the animals, going through Casper's Castle, and the small straw maze. At the end, they got to pick out a pumpkin to take home. We may get around to carving them, but since they got to carve pumpkins at Grandma and Grandpa's house during a sleepover last weekend, we are not in much of a rush. They did a great job on those pumpkins, so that might be the end of carving this year!

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October 24, 2011

How did it get to be October 24?!!! Seriously, if I didn't know any better, I would think that someone magically removed a month in the calendar. I can't believe that we have already lived in the new house for more than two months.

While things keep moving forward at a fast and furious pace, this weekend I had some flashbacks to similar events that happened around this time last year. The first of these events was our cement pours for the foundation work. I was reminded of that this weekend as Keith was prepping for our front and back garage pads that will be poured tomorrow. The kids were very excited to help daddy do the prep work for this pour.

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I was also reminded of a birthday party we went to last year for one of the kids friends, as we attended her third birthday party on Saturday. Julia and Andrew were in heaven to see some of their close friends who they haven't seen since we moved. They also enjoyed playing around at the gym and eating cake and ice cream!

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We are also getting ready for Halloween. Although every day seems like Halloween since the kids like to play dress-up so often. Here they are modeling some of their favorite superhero outfits.

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And lastly, if nothing else made me remminise about last October, the changing leaves would have been the undenialable evidence that time has passed. In addition to watching the leaves change outside, Julia and I collected some leaves for a class project this week. Unfortunately, neither one of us could stop collecting the leaves. I think we had a pretty good chorus between us of "just one more", as evidenced by our leaves being washed in the sink.

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October 17, 2011

Fall is here, and the days are definitely shorter, but still jam packed with things to do. We are looking forward to pumpkin farms, hayrides, and treat-or-treating in the weeks to come.

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It is also getting closer to November 15, which is when we are required to have our raingarden installed by for the county. So Keith was busy working on getting that done last week. Now we have a nice assortment of river birch, sweetshrub, holly and several grasses. As you can see, the kids also enjoyed helping and playing outside.

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Inside the house, we are finally have our furniture all in place, and we can sit on something other than beanbags while watching TV (although the kids seem to still prefer the beanbags!)

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We are also trying to get our refrigerator squared away. VERY LONG story made short, our third refrigerator will be delivered tomorrow. Fingers crossed that will be the last one delivered her for 20 years.

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I have also started assembling my "kitchy kitchen" items. I have always loved vintage kitchen stuff, so I have placed some antique, beat-up items in the space above the pantries.

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And lastly, but NOT leastly...we got an offer on our old house this week. We put it on Craigslist on Monday and on Tuesday a family came to see it. After one more visit, they made an offer on Saturday. Providing everything looks okay to our lawyer, we hope to move forward with it and get it sold.