Catching Our Breath

It's hard to believe that the end of summer is almost upon us. We head out Wednesday night for a much needed break to the north woods of Wisconsin to see Ryan's grandparents and much of the rest of the extended clan.

Fortunately, we leave summer with a bit of hope on the horizon. Tomorrow, I "re-interview" for the job I thought I had and that I still desperately want. I've got my fingers and toes crossed but I am not really sure what to expect since I don't understand all the bureaucratic machinations behind the cancellation of the selection in the first place. Still, I bought a new suit for the occasion and will actually blow dry my hair for once. Nothing like the right impressions!

Today, we met with a kitten that we may adopt through the SPCA of Northern VA. Because of our vacation plans, we couldn't possibly adopt her/take her home until we come back but Izzy is thrilled by the prospect. She spent some time playing with the kitten and her two brothers in the foster home this afternoon. She already has a pink collar picked out. I should be thankful it doesn't have rhinestones on it.

We do desperately need a new kitten since Coco has taken to expressing loneliness, boredom, what have you by leaving little presents for us in the living room. Thursday Ryan and I both walked through said present right before we were due to go to work and yesterday Izzy had the honors. I love motherhood. Not only did I have to scrub and clean the piles off the carpet but I had to scrub Isabel's foot down. Yum!

In other news, both girls finished their ballet class this weekend. Since I posted a pic of Lottie last week, here are some fun ones of Izzy for this week. (I meant to take more of Lottie but like the bad mommy I am, I didn't charge the camera battery beforehand. Oops.

I felt like an especially bad mommy with Lottie since not only did all the other parents come equipped with camera and video to record this precious moment of their young female offspring not listening to someone else while dressed in pink tulle, they also dragged along assorted grandparents to capture the moment. Double oops.

I think that's all we really have to report. Oh- and I finally took a picture of the kitchen project in progress. This will mean nothing to any of you who have not been to my house, but if I am feeling ambitious, I'll post separately the really before pixs. For those who are familiar, check this out-

Sexy, huh? We are waiting for the new countertops to come in and Ryan is going to reface that heinous cabinet that you get a suggestion of in this picture (a nice formica addition that matches nothing else). A new floor and really right sexy, I'd say. I actually am really starting to love it. Now, if only we could get rid of the behemoth refrigerator...

Happy Sunday all!

Lordy it's been a while

Lottie is appalled I haven't blogged in more than a month. Or is she enjoying the train ride at Lake Braddock park?

I can't believe I've been off blogging for so long. That's what I get for ending my sabbatical in early July and going back to my regular job. Boo hoo for me I guess.

Our summer since I last wrote has been both bitter and sweet. Sweet first since it seems only fair (nothing like an anvil to get people interested in your blog again.) The girls have both been taking ballet class to some success. Lottie spends most of her time ignoring her teacher and making exaggerated faces at herself in the wall length mirror. That is when she's not hanging off the ballet bar. Isabel has actually gotten pretty good at it and is perhaps the second most earnest girl in her class. It's easy to get her to listen to her teacher. We've been making excellent progress on our kitchen project. We have the cabinets painted now and Ryan this weekend installed some nifty under the counter lights. Home Depot is coming to measure for the new countertop this week and we brought home floor samples from Ikea. I might actually not be embarrassed of our kitchen soon. How exciting!


The reluctant ballerina


Izzy and Ryan on the go

On the sad side, we lost one of our cats very suddenly about 3 weeks ago. We took her to the vet on a Monday AM thinking she was looking too thin and was having a hard time breathing and the next thing we know, our vet calls and tells us she's terminal. Ryan came to the vet with me to put her down and we both cried and went to the local pub and shared a pint. As terrible as it was, I was so grateful to have him in my life. I can't imagine having to go through life's sorrows large and small without him. Even sadder than our cat, my cousin who has struggled to get pregnant lost the twin boys she was carrying. She was probably around 16 weeks or so when it happened. We were set to go to NJ for an early baby shower when we heard the news. Finally, I was selected for a job I really, really wanted (and still do) in mid July only to have my "big" bosses decide the selection process was not everything it could have been and canceled the selection as a result. I was so put out by the whole thing I dyed my own hair (something I've done only once before in college when I thought it would be fun to have red hair after a very long winter) and encouraged a family make-over. That's right. A personal makeover was not enough. The girls and I all got our hair cut and Ryan shaved off his beard (again.) I should have probably taken a picture right after but my mood was still a little black even if my hair was a little blonder.

I'm personally just hoping for lots of luck and good fortune in the autumn.

We have a bit more summer fun in our future before officially signing off of the season. We head next week to WI for a week long vacation with Ryan's family. Izzy swears she'll go on the boat ride this year around Squirrel Lake (Ryan's grandparents have a lake house in the north woods that attracts city folk like us once a year.) I have tried to explain to her that I will not hold her hand, though, when she goes fishing since I don't fish. I don't know why, but she has developed a real enthusiasm for the concept of fishing. This from a kid who tried to dive off the paddle boat we had her on last weekend before realizing it was not in fact scary.


Well, cowboys and girls, it's time this little doggy goes to bed. Hope everyone has been well during my hiatus! Talk to you real soon. (and yes- I realize they have black dots on their noses in this one. That's another story for another day.)

Road Trip!

We bit the bullet this past weekend: we packed up the kids, toys, snacks, books, and video player and made the ten hour drive to Atlanta for the 4th. Ryan's parents, Mimi and Bob, are in Atlanta and we were way overdue for a visit, having last been when Isabel was an infant. During the weeks running up to the trip, I began to live in dread of the drive. The girls are pretty frequent car travelers since we go visit my family in New Jersey and New York every few months. We even drive routinely to Vermont with them. But we always overnight in NY on the way to VT breaking up the trip into manageable shifts. This was 10 hrs in the car straight through. I was so worked up by the night before we left that I only slept an hour and a half. Clearly I have issues. The thought of 10 hrs of whining, crying, and general complaining still gives me hives.

But surprisingly, the girls did great. Each slept the first three hours of the trip (it helped we rolled out at 4:30 AM), didn't have to make incessant potty breaks, and managed to keep the whine to a minimum. It helped that we stopped for breakfast and lunch although neither stop was long. Thank the lord for the charger adapter I bought at Radio Shack before the trip.

Atlanta itself was wonderful. We went to the Georgia Aquarium on Friday.





It's been a long time since I've been to an Aquarium and according to one of the guides, the Georgia Aquarium boasts one of the largest tanks in the world. There were plenty of fish, including several whale sharks. Very cool.

For the 4th itself, we took the girls down to Olympic Centennial Park. It's smaller than I imagined but the fountain there was definitely worth the trip! We arrived in time to see a fountain show and got some good splashing in. Well, Isabel did- Lottie wasn't particularly keen.







Saturday night we drove to Decatur for their parade, concert, and fireworks.





The Children's Museum of Atlanta, swimming, lots of eating, and looking at old family photos rounded out the trip. As lovely as it was, all I want to do now is stay home. It's been alot of traveling for the Schroeders and we're barely halfway through the summer!!

Happy Tuesday.

A Weekend Away

I am a bit behind on my blogging and I am officially dragging at the moment, so these few entries will be kind of short.  Ryan and I took our first non-small fry vacation two weekends ago.  To be fair, we've managed to slip in a conference or two sans enfants (and had a lovely time doing so since both conferences were in the UK) but this weekend entailed no thinking, no time management, and only fun.  Look how happy we were...



Well maybe we weren't as happy together as Ryan was playing pirate at the Field Museum.



Officially we were in Chicago for my cousin's wedding. The wedding was just as all proper weddings should be: a bit touching, a bit tacky, and alot of fun. I do just love Chicago. I don't think I've ever had a bad time when visiting as an adult. We stuck to our old favorites: the Art Institute, Millennium Park, the Walnut Room in the old Marshall Fields. Someday we'll venture out more, but for now, a perfect weekend.

Some Way Cool Dudes

Ryan and the girls at the Museum of Natural History

Happy Father's Day to two great guys- Ryan and my dad. OK- and my father-in-law although I don't have a good picture of him to share here. I have to say (and I really am not trying to kiss up since neither my dad nor Ryan read Pinkerbelle) I think dads are an under-appreciated commodity. Thank god the girls have Ryan in their lives. He keeps it real. He's willing and able to deal with all of their peculiarities but adds a distinct dose of masculine perspective into most proceedings. And I know the girls love him for it. If it weren't for Ryan, neither Izzy or Lottie would have any idea of who Sherlock Holmes was or how to scramble an egg properly.


My dad and grandkids

As for my dad, well, this picture probably says it all. He's a pretty quiet person but with lots of good humor and a distinct willingness to be bossed around by his wife, three daughters, and two granddaughters. Maybe someday he'll revolt, but we're glad he's on our side now.

Our father's day weekend didn't turn out quite the way we were expecting or hoping. The weather in NY did its best to make everyone miserable. It was humid, sticky, and raining pretty much from the moment we arrived to the moment we left. This was all the more disappointing since we arrived equipped with beach umbrella, bathing suits, towels, sunscreen, tennis rackets, and bike helmets. A weekend outdoors was not to be. In a last ditch effort to entertain the girls, we went into Manhattan to the Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately, it seemed as if every other New Yorker (but most especially the obnoxious ones) had the same idea. The place was mobbed. Parents and other bystanders were crabby, lippy, and cared not to notice other people around them in their quests to get to wherever it was they were going. Funny thing is, I don't think the girls noticed. They seemed to be having a pretty good time.


Izzy and the Triceratops

Strange too was that the Ocean Hall was actually pretty tame. People were sprawled out under the whale watching a film on oceans, but they were sprawling quietly. I was impressed that we actually got Izzy into the Ocean Hall. I remember being cowed as a kid myself by the sheer size of the blue whale hanging from the ceiling.


The Natural History Museum's great Blue Whale

Most successful was our trip to the gift shop. Isabel and Lottie are now the proud owners of a jaguar and dinosaur, respectively named "Baby" and "Six." If you know my girls, you'll know whose is whose.

And so ends another weekend adventure with the Schroeder girls. They sure do love visiting their grandparents.


And that's that

Next up- a weekend away for mom and dad! (Note the exclamation point.) We're heading to Chicago for a family wedding this weekend.

Someone other than Mimi reads Pinkerbelle?

How fun-

The folks at Kidburst.com found my blog and asked for permission to post it on their website. If you are in the DC area or just visiting, give them a look-see. Great ideas for parents in the DC/northern VA area.

Happy Friday.

Girl fever

I wonder if it would be different if I had little boys. Would I be like my sister who since the birth of her sons hasn't met a motorcycle she didn't like? What if I had a boy and a girl?! I imagine I would be extremely conflicted. As it is, I have two girls. Not just any girls but two bubble gum pink girls. The purse carrying, bead wearing, high heel kind of girls. Idols in life include (in no particular order) Eloise, Angelina, Madeline, Lola, and sometimes Pinkalicious.

The funny thing is is that the more time I spend with them, the more I become like them. I spend my time lusting after Swish and Swanky posts. I mean look at the kinds of things she finds-

these coloring books:



Or this print maker:



When not lusting online, I am drawn to shops. Who wouldn't eat this kind of stuff up?



(By the way- for anyone in DC- the Kid's Closet is still having a sale on Bonnie Jean dresses...)

Or the ribboned flip-flops that the Purple Goose has right now among the other way expensive delights they boast. I mean just look- don't your teeth hurt with all the sweetness?



Izzy and I have been known to have serious conversation about wands. Where does it stop?

It's not that I don't think I can relate to a boy anymore or not that I don't secretly harbor a wish for some more blonde goodness running around- I'm also addicted to Darby Stickler's blog and think well maybe three wouldn't be so bad and I bet we could make a cute one- but could you imagine a boy in a sea of all this pink these days? I imagine, as I have threatened to do sometimes when things get too much, he would simply want to puke.

More fun on the way for the weekend. See you see!

The Weekend that Was

I'd like to say I had pictures to document our weekend adventures but alas, no pictures and no adventures. Pretty much just the standard fare of summer- pool on Friday night followed by tex-mex and the best custard outside of WI (anyone from the DC area would know I was of course talking about the Dairy Godmother). Saturday was filled with yard work, painting, and kiddie pooling in the backyard. I will get a picture of the kiddie pool soon since it is really quite delightful this year. The girls were also rather delighted to have their play house restored to a more playful area of the yard and I was delighted to have my patio back, even if there's hay still on it. (Long story involving lots of wet, yucky mud and grass seeds.) Saturday night we had dinner on the newly restored patio and were entertained by a bevy of rabbits in the lower back. Apparently the clover down there is quite tasty. We returned to the great outdoors following bath to watch for fireflies. It was just about dusk and so the viewing wasn't superb and the kids got a bit antsy, but in my mind there's nothing like a red plastic Adirondack chair on a June evening.

Sunday was much of the same except that I got into the kiddie pool myself for awhile. Yes, it's that big. A BBQ with friends Sunday night and it was off to dreamland.

Part of the hectic pace was dictated by our fun summer weekends (only so much time to fit in necessary house projects) and by my really strong desire to tackle a small kitchen upgrade. We've tried to make the kitchen more presentable by painting and swapping out the light fixtures, but we're in some serious need of more make-over. I'll post some pix this week to prove it. I am determined to do this for cheap- we're not talking a full make-over here and so I expect that the kitchen is going to occupy a lot of our time in the next few months. Alas (unless it turns out well then joy!)

Happy Monday!

No More Thunderstorms Please!

Today is Thursday and this will be our fourth day in a row of thunderstorms. I hate thunderstorms. Mainly because they turn my four years old daughter and now my two years old daughter (who absolutely must do EVERYTHING her big sister does) into snivelling piles of whiny mush. Even the most subtle rumble of thunder miles and miles away will start Isabel quaking and blurting instant demands to sleep in our bed. (Funny this since it usually happens hours before bed time is actually to occur.) Monday most of the storms were in the afternoon which wasn't too terrible to manage. Tuesday, the storms began at 5:00 AM which meant that by 5:01 both girls were in our bed telling us how much they were afraid of t-storms. Lottie just repeats "scary" over and over again. Tuesday afternoon we had a repeat which quickly curtailed our idea to inflate the kiddie pool in the backyard. Wednesday, most conveniently, the storm started just as we were putting the kids to bed, which inevitably meant that I was confined to my room surrounded by small snoring tow-heads. Thank god for my unseemly obsession with home improvement blogs these days. At least I can keep myself entertained for a little while.

Course the 'effin weathermen are predicting t-storms all the way through next Tuesday. Lovely. By that time, I might be blogging about how I've run away from home.

This weekend at the lake

Aiming not to disappoint, we were again busy with summer-y fun, this time under the guise of a visit to my mom's rental cabin on a week lake in NJ. The weather was none too promising when we left on Friday driving us inside to the cheesy delights of a NJ kid destination. This one was called the Giggle Station or something like that. It was kind of a weird amalgamation of boardwalk, climbers, and odd train, plus pizza! (sadly without the beer) but the girls seemed to like it.


Post odd train ride

Fortunately, Saturday and Sunday proved much finer weather and we got to do lots of lake activities, like playing on the wee beach and a kayak ride (a first for both Lottie and I.)


Picnic on the beach


The rowers return


Izzy keeping watch on our progress having declined a "boat ride" herself

Saturday night we visited our second carnival of the season, this time with my sister and her two sons. The highlight of this one hands down was going on the ferris wheel with Isabel. She was so delighted by the quick uptake and large, high loops. She announced that she would very much like a carnival permanently installed in her back yard.


Izzy, Lottie, and Baz on the train


Whirling Strawberries

The Longest Story Ever Told

The other night in the bath tub Isabel asked me for about the hundredth time to tell her a story about when she was a baby. Having played along for 99 times, I turned the tables on her and asked her to tell me a story. Here's what she came up with:

Isabel and Lottie were playing one day when a storm cloud with a very mean face [[face was demonstrated]] came along and tried to get them. Izzy and Lottie ran and ran until they ended up in a cave in which to hide from the storm cloud. Unfortunately, the cave was inhabited by a mean which who kept a pet dragon. The witch thought Izzy and Lottie would make a fine dinner. Before she could put them in the pot, however, the storm cloud, who decided he would rather be friends with I & L than scare them anymore, ate up the witch himself. Sadly (for I & L and the storm cloud), the witch had a magic wand and was able to put all her eaten up pieces back together. After reassembling herself and acquiring a new henchman in the form of an alien, the witch was successful in putting Izzy and Lottie into a pot and cooking them up. Of course, Lottie was the first to be eaten, followed by Isabel. Fortunately, somewhere in the course of the action, Isabel had acquired a beautiful magic necklace and was able to reassemble herself. Lottie was not so lucky and the storm cloud cried copious tears over the loss of his friend.

[[After receiving some meaningful looks from both her mom and sister]], Isabel decided that Lottie too could share in the charms of the magic necklace and could be reassembled. The witch, however, would not be deterred and quickly recaptured our two hapless heroines. At this point, my mother made an appearance in the story bearing a sword and told the witch very solemnly, "You are not nice." (Truly fighting words if I do say so myself.) Nonetheless, the witch already had I & L in the pot and cut up into pieces. And, being smarter than your average chicken, had managed to get the magic necklace and hide it so that I & L could not reassemble themselves so easily.

It's here that the story ended for the night although Izzy promises that there is much more to come. As she very earnestly told me, "It's a long story, mom."

**This is not a completely faithful rendering of the story since I missed the part where the third henchman, a monster, comes in and I believe a dramatic chase sequence. But I was trying to wash, dry, and clothe children while Iz told me the story.

Why Don't They Sleep?

I don't have the mental stamina to do more than a few lines of blogging at the moment. (My "work" blog has a couple of pathetic links and that's all.) But I thought I would record here for posterity's sake that my girls DO NOT SLEEP. Almost ever. Well maybe that's an exaggeration, but that's what it feels like at the mo'. Both girls had fits last night and fits this AM when we woke them up to get ready to go to school. Not sleeping makes me not a nice person. It makes me crabby and weird.

I wish my kids would sleep. I miss my bed.

Thank goodness there were no incidents on Box Hill

Wouldn't it be nice to think that we had something fun to record every weekend this summer. Somehow I doubt that we'll be able to keep it up, but this weekend we did do something very fun, and new, at least for us. We went strawberry picking. Our outing almost ended before it began. After doing some due diligence of you-pick farms, I settled on one near Markham, VA since we know the area generally. (I think Naked Mountain vineyard in Markham produces some very nice reds!) All was well until we got to the farm and faced a large sign saying to try again on Tuesday, 2 June, since all the ripe strawberries had already been picked. I think I was more disappointed than the kids. Fortunately, an enterprising competitor posted a large sign adorned with only a strawberry and an arrow at the intersection down the hill from the strawberry-less farm. Eureka! We were in business.

Here are some of the results- Pretty, huh?

A taste of summer

Again, I've been slacking off blogging. Things really are going on in our lives. It's just that I don't seem to have the energy these days to recount them. All that being said, we had a fine holiday weekend. I worked from home on Friday and picked the girls up early afternoon after their school closed early. We made a Target run for diapers and then treated ourselves to Dairy Queen. (Yum!) At Izzy's suggestion, we had a tex-mex picnic on our front porch, complete with chips, salsa, and margaritas. Saturday, after the farmer's market, we all lounged in the girls' inflatable pool, which Izzy has aptly christened the cold tub. And damn, was it cold. Nothing like hose water when the weather is really only in the high 70s/low 80s. The real treat of the weekend came over the following two days. Sunday we drove to Sandy Point State Park near the Annapolis to go to the "beach." I say "beach" because the sand is weird (kind of orange in hue) and it's on the Chesapeake Bay, not the ocean. On the positive side, it's only an hour from our house. You would have thought that I was Tinker Belle and Peter Pan all rolled into one given Izzy's reaction. She was in heaven. It wasn't too crowded, the waves were wee, and the weather, despite being somewhat overcast, stayed dry. She proclaimed it better than FL, which is high praise for a kid who has been angling to live there since she was 2.



Lottie enjoyed herself quite a bit as well, although her effusiveness was measured by the occasional demand for tommy and wa-wa. (As in go in water NOW!)



The beach was my idea, but the real coup came from Ryan. On a "daddy downtime" bike ride after we got back from the beach, Ryan discovered that Vienna, VA was having its annual town pride celebration. "Viva Vienna" meant a carnival. And the girls have never been to a carnival. And despite having just announced that she wanted to live at Sandy Point State Park, Isabel decided she instead wanted to live at the carnival. I have to say, it was fun and very old school- down to the glittery dune buggie cars under the stripped umbrellas to the Scrambler (here called the Sizzler), the giant slide, and even bigger boxes of popcorn and bags of cotton candy. Lottie was a little put out that she couldn't go on all of the rides Isabel did, but in the end, she was satisfied that she got to ride the "Wiggly Wurm" (kid you not) and had a fiesta Dora that Ryan won for her in balloon darts.







Welcome back summer! We missed you.

Things I hate

A photo essay by me...



Sure, I love Easter egg hunting ALOT. I spend at least a week buying and filling plastic eggs before the big day. But the aftermath always kills me. I find plastic egg shells around the house for weeks, sometimes months, after Easter. Somehow, despite my best efforts to clean up and pack the decorations until next year, those damn plastic eggs continue to pop up in the strangest places.

Another-


Isabel's train/boat

Ok- I don't hate this per say (since that would make me a really bad mommy), but Izzy has a proliferating art habit that is getting a bit unmanageable. Everyday she comes home from preschool with at least 3 bits of paper with some new masterpiece on it. And she has a habit of becoming immediately attached to her "work," usually by gifting it to me. It's not as if we don't support her habit. Our house boasts this display venue-




As well as this-



It's just that the house boats/trains as well as the clay baby dinosaurs and numerous bird finger puppets don't fit neatly into the girls' art folders and end up collecting dust and undue attention from the cats.

Oh well, such is life. Happy Tuesday!

Those We Love

I've been dwelling on relationships alot lately. Not actively dwelling, more passively taking in the joys and pains of loving other people. This reverie started somewhat shallowly with my new found fascination for the Beales (big and little Edie of Grey Gardens fame). I haven't seen the documentary- nor for that matter the Drew Barrymore bio-pic on HBO- but I read Gail Sheehy's original article in New York magazine and subsequent takes on the relationship between big and little Edie and how big Edie's neediness preyed upon an already weak and unstable little Edie. Perhaps neither one was ever destined for any sense of normality but to essentially keep a person emotionally and physically locked up with you for 40 years seems so painful.

Next came a passing glance at an article on parenting.com which polled readers about marital relationships. Surprisingly or not, a plurality of female respondents reported being quite angry with their spouses for not shouldering equal responsibility of child rearing. The level of anger, disappointment, and general unhappiness of many of these women was sad to say the least. Sad directly and sad in a "get over yourself" kind of way.

Finally, my stepmother called the other day to let us know that a dear friend of hers had died of cancer. We knew this friend was very ill with only months to live but the fact that she went rather suddenly was heart-breaking all the same. In telling me about her friend's death, my stepmother tried to explain to me why she would miss her friend so much. There was a tremendous poignancy in listening to her. All of us can identify with her efforts to try to explain the role that friends play in our lives- secret keepers, advise dispensers, shoulders to lean on, faces and hearts to laugh with.

Over all of this, I've been editing a manuscript for someone that delves into these relationships- the joys, disappointments, the shared history, the misunderstandings, and hopefully the redemptions that accompany knowing and loving people. In a way, it all feels like a cause for celebration- of not being alone, of finding those connections which bring us closer not only to each other but to ourselves. But at the same time, it also feels like too much for one heart to capture. Maybe it's better to just dwell on these things in silence.

I'm Baaaack

Wow, it's been so long since I've blogged I don't know where to start. Maybe with a quick update on how we've been?

Busy, as always. Since my last post, Ryan took a business trip for 10 days with only some disastrous consequences this time. (Bad things ALWAYS happen when Ryan gets on an airplane without us.) This time it was the stomach flu for me and a fall down a few stairs for Lottie. Somehow we survived. More happily, we all got down to FL for 5 days at the beginning of April for some much needed R&R. Beach, golf, tennis, Disney and mostly good weather. Very dreamy and we're all still a bit sad to be back.

Then there was Easter, of course, with a visit from my sister and her boys. It was a beautiful day in VA after a most cruddy Sat and a perfect occasion for egg hunting, ham, and a delicious Vouvery.

The girls have finally gotten to their county classes- Izzy in soccer and Lottie in gym jam. We went for our first trip of 2009 to the Falls Church farmers' market this past weekend to delicious results. We also had our first BBQ and mass playdate. After all of this, I think I can safely say, spring has arrived, thank the lord.



Pre-Easter Egg hunting


Golfing in FL


Cousins