Back from Summer Break

Time to update the ol' blog since my last post was in July. Way too much has been going on so I'll give the shortened version on it. Basically, I've been crazy busy. Thought I was busy before....this is a new kind of busy. Where your feet hit the ground running and don't stop all day until you fall back into bed way past your bedtime. Every day.
We found out at the very end of June that the house we were renting had sold and we needed to be out by the end of July. Jason (kinda) bullied them and said, "No way...can't be out until the end of September." When all was compromised, we were out by the end of August. In the meantime, we had found our house to buy on Blueberry Lane. So for the rest of July and the 1st 1/2 of August, I spent lots of time packing, organizing, throwing away, etc. Then we closed on our Blueberry Lane house in mid-August and got even busier than before.
The house was built in 1965. And the inside looked like....1965. The original red shag carpet, brown plaid wallpaper in the kitchen (on the walls & ceiling). Paneling. Pink bathroom (tub, toilet, sink, tile, wallpaper). And my favorite, a built-in bar in the lower level that was decorated with Viking memorabilia. So when we closed on the house, we immediately went to work on rehabbing the kitchen. We literally had some blood, sweat, and tears going on.
So from mid-August until August 31st, we spent every free moment working on the house to get it ready. And then August 31st, we officially moved in. I have to say...I'm pretty good at not sweating the small stuff. I'm organized; I use my critical thinking skills; I have good time management. But moving with a 4 year old and a 1 year old while working part-time...it kicked my butt from one end to the other. I had my moments of being so overwhelmed and short on time...I really thought we weren't going to pull it off. But we did, and life is getting back to normal. Well, the Chiodo normal that is.

Blueberry Lane

Our almost two years of renting are about to come to an end. After selling our home in West Haven (on a busy street, with a tiny yard), renting for 20 months and waiting (hoping and praying) for housing prices to come down in this most expensive state...we are about to become homeowners again.
We found a home on Blueberry Lane in Stratford that is going to be perfect for us. It was built in 1965 and the inside looks like...1965. Brown kitchen, red carpet, and a pink bathroom. We put our vision goggles on and saw a home that was meant to be ours. It's smaller than we were looking for; but in a strange way, I'm kinda excited about the smaller size. We are going to SIMPLIFY: getting rid of excess furniture, cleaning fewer toilets, paying smaller utility bills. Sounds good to me. The yard is really what we fell in love with. It is on 1/3 of an acre (which is a nice, hard-to-find size around here). We are going to love seeing the kids run around in the backyard, planting a garden, and even putting an American flag on our flagpole. I will attest that having a bigger house on a smaller yard is not all it's cracked up to be. So we're going for the opposite effect...and I think it will be just dandy. And I got a deck (a first for us) and a fireplace (another first).
Hopefully we'll be moving around the beginning of August. We'll be rolling up our shirtsleeves and making our house a home. And I get to paint! Twenty months of white walls has about sapped out my creative juices. I'm so excited!
We'll keep you updated on our exact date to change our address.

Our Little Ballerina

We had Abby go to The Little Gym for a few sessions of ballet, tap, and gymnastics. She LOVED it. This was the show they put on for the parents on the last day of the session. She was just too cute...

Strawberries and Summertime Fun

At the park with cousins for Grandpa & Grandma Chiodo's 65th Anniversary Party:





Strawberry Picking at Jones Family Farm:






Ben trying out breakfast at the kid table:



At the playground...Abby on a ship "looking for pirates!":





My bargain of the summer....a Pottery Barn Kids kitchen from Craigslist:

Our Camping Adventure

We got home yesterday afternoon from our first weekend of being Chiodo campers. Mercy me...it was an adventure before we even got there. Last week was just a bit too crazy for us....I felt like I was way too short on time and had way too long of a to-do list. Do you ever have those weeks where work just gets in the way of everything else you want to do in life?

We wanted to leave around noon on Friday to get down there and set up and enjoy the afternoon. That just didn't happen though. Friday was crazy....kids needing their mommy every second, mommy needing to pack, clean, make our Boy Scout dinner for that night, and do about a million other things. So I did half work and half dancing in the living room with the kids...the dancing helped with the stress. By the time Jason got home (he worked 1/2 a day) and packed the car, we realized we could barely fit our kids in the car to take with us! Abby was sitting in her carseat with her head tilted a full 90 degrees sideways. Wasn't going to work. So we had to make a pit stop and take Grandpa & Grandma Chiodo's good ol' minivan instead. Please remember my hubby is a veteran Boy Scout and wanted to take everything but the toilet with us on this trip.

So we finally get there around 6:30 p.m. with a darkening sky, hungry/cranky kids, and a few raindrops to boot. I bought a tent last minute at Target and we did not have an ounce of time at home to take a practice run beforehand. So with the darkening sky, hungry/cranky kids, and a few raindrops....the two of us worked together like we never have before. We whipped out the tent (nice and fresh in its case from Target) and put it together fast for the first time. 20 minutes later we had an awesome looking tent which stayed nice and dry all weekend but still had the darkening sky, hungry/cranky kids, and a good ol' rainstorm happening. So much for our pork & sweet potatoes foil-wrapped Boy Scout dinner we were going to cook over the campfire. We headed down to the canteen and got us some cheeseburgers and onion rings and watched the rain. Slept okay that night. Our tent was huge (8 person) so our queen aerobed and the pack 'n play fit in there quite nicely. But by the morning, our aerobed needed some more air and Ben was sleeping on Jason and Abby was tossing and turning between us. But we survived.

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day. We had a fabulous breakfast with our friends and we all headed down to the beach. Abby loved playing in the lake and building sandcastles in the sun. The day was awesome. Until about 5 p.m. Our group was in the middle of eating dinner when it started to rain again. And not just a few drops....pouring rain and then it started hailing. All 14 adults and 14 kids were huddled underneath the two overhead tents with our dinners and supplies getting soaked. I was on the edge holding Ben. My good ol' backside was soaked and I felt the hail hitting my back/butt/legs. That stuff stings! It finally started to sprinkle so we whipped out some fast smores and got our kids off to bed around 8 p.m. Jason went back to the group campsite but I laid down with the kids to get them to sleep. It rained all.night.long. And there was plenty of loud thunder and lightning. Instead of going out to join the group, I just stayed there with my two soundly sleeping kids cause it just wasn't worth it to go back out in that stuff.
We woke up the next morning and found lots and lots of slugs covering the outside of our tent. What a beautiful sight. I have to say our tent was awesome...we had no water, no bugs the whole weekend inside the tent. It was plenty big enough for us and was our little sanctuary. After breakfast on Sunday, I was all done. Ready to pack it up and go home. So we did. A hot bath for the kids, a hot shower for us, some food and some rest...we felt like a million bucks.

So...here's some hints to those who may camp in the future:
1. Blow up your aerobed with the plug CLOSED. Our stressful tent set up had me frazzled enough. When we were blowing up the aerobed (AC adaptor from the van that let us plug in the cord..awesome), I kept thinking that something was wrong. It wasn't filling up and getting firm. Lo and behold-the air release plug was wide open in the back. Smart one there, Jenn.
2. Pack plenty of underwear. Here's too much information. Friday, I'm packing for all four of us while Jason is loading the car. Guess whose undies I forgot to pack? Mine! So let's just say that we had some commando time goin' on this weekend after my one good pair got soaked in the rain/hailstorm at dinner on Saturday night.
3. Bring a drying rack. Excellent idea that I didn't think of. Great thing to use to dry out wet clothes/swimsuits/towels instead of draping them all over your car.
4. Bring clothes for any climate...wet, dry, hot, cold. And maybe a rain jacket would be good. Mine stayed nice and clean on our coatrack at home. How is it that I forgot the important stuff for me?!?
5. We took one blessed shower this weekend at the bathhouse. I packed lots of goody travel size stuff for us. But didn't think about how guys and girls are split up. So we had to wing it on the toiletries when Jason and Ben went one way and me and Abby went the other. So I would recommend bringing two sets of toiletries for that very thing.
6. Leave the nice jewelry at home. While changing Ben on Saturday, he reached up and yanked on my diamond necklace and broke the chain. Jason said he would put it in the van but left it in his pocket. Came back that night (the night of rain/hail/thunder/lightning) and my necklace was no longer in his pocket. He did a quick search in the storm for it but couldn't find it. The next morning, I fortunately found it by the group campsite. Next time though, all good stuff is staying home.

So, there you have it. Our fun adventure. We had a great time and made some new friends with the group we went with. I would definitely enjoy it more with nicer weather next time though. The kids did great...adapted to everything right away.

Last Day of Preschool Pictures

Abby's first year of preschool was such a fun, memorable year. In the beginning, I was so nervous about having my baby girl go somewhere for 2 mornings a week. I cried when I dropped her off the first day. And then about 2 weeks later, I was loving my semi-free time to get errands run. Ben was a tiny baby then so it was so easy to spend a leisurely hour in the grocery store. Now...not so much. Anyway...she had the BEST teacher, and a wonderful group of kids in her class. I have so many fun crafts and projects that she did in her preschool box that I have for her. I saw her grow and develop in many different ways....learning to sit with a group and listen during storytime, sing and dance in music class, be line leader, play and share with others, and experience so many different and fun ideas with arts and crafts. Her teacher was wonderful about taking pictures. She'd take them, post them in the classroom for awhile, and then give them to the parent. And at the end of the year, she gave each child a picture CD with the music playing in the background. I could go on and on....

(Note: Abby was a little sad & emotional on her last day of school. So in order to get her to take a picture, I had to say, "Show me your teeth." That's why she has that teethy grin on her face in the pictures. Better than the tears...)

Spaghetti Night (and My Version of This Whole Italian Thing)

My kids LOVE spaghetti. They may look Irish but they have strong Italian blood running through those veins. Pasta in any way, shape, or form is always a big hit with them. And we HAVE to have it with plenty of "sprinkle cheese" (Chiodo code name for Parmesan cheese). We even make our own gravy sometimes.
Gravy is what real Italians call sauce. Here's a side note about this whole Italian thing...I have learned a lot about Italians and their food since moving up here to Connecticut. I'm a OK farm girl who grew up on meat and potatoes. I didn't know a thing about Italian food other than having eaten at Olive Garden a few times. Seriously. Here's a few things to note:
1. Italians will spend all day making gravy. You start in the morning with your mounds of garlic and meat and tomatoes..do your magic and then let that magic simmer all day long. We had Jason's aunt and uncle over a couple of years ago to teach me how to make gravy. It is some good tastin' stuff...but quite involved. I am so thankful that my mother-in-law is not a hardcore Italian cook. She buys the frozen stuffed shells at Costco right along with me.
2. Italians love fish. I am still mystified by this. Why is fish such a big part of Italian food? I never imagined fish and pasta going hand in hand. The only thing I can figure is that Italy is on the sea?
3. Italians don't pronounce their cheeses and pastas correctly. Ricotta cheese is pronounced "rigot." Manicotti is pronounced "manacot". Mozzarella cheese is pronounced "mootsarel." Please don't laugh at me but when we first lived here, one of my coworkers was a big Italian. She gave me a recipe and I spent a long time looking in the cheese section of the grocery store looking for mootsarel and rigot cheeses. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what these cheeses were that everyone talked about. What a hoot.
Okay-that's my sidebar. Here's my Italian/Irish children.