Happy Halloween!

These are the best shots we could get. Kids had a BLAST trick or treating! Next year, there will be THREE Starkey kids out and about!

Happy Birthday, Kate!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Kate! I can't believe it's been two years.


Two years, and your hair hasn't grown much, and we can't do a thing with it.


Two years of seeing this grin, which is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.


Two years of telling you to act like a lady and "Keep your dress DOWN!!!"


Two years of watching you become such an individual.


But you might take after me, after all.

Happy Birthday, Kate!

In which I complain about the month of October

Do you know about October? I dread this month. At school it brings me NECAP Testing and Parent Teacher Conferences. I despise NECAP testing. It's SO boring for me. I end up spending hours on end surfing the internet and answering a question here and there. This time around it's going to last for SIX school days. My best friend lives in the future, people! This only gives me a couple hours a day for emailing before she retires for tea and dinner. NOT FAIR. Then there is the awkward Parent Teacher conference. "Hi, I've only known your son/daughter for 5 weeks. Let me tell you what I think about your child that you've know for 11 years. And now that Dougie's in school, that means that I not only have to have 19 conferences of my own, I also have to GO to a conference for him. He's in PREK. What can they tell me? He plays well? He can almost write his name?

And on top of it all, I went and decided to have a BABY in October! Which means I have to throw a birthday party! Oh, and two of my friends had babies the same week!! Do you know how many parties I have to go to in October? Please understand that I WANT TO GO TO THE PARTIES, but at the same time, I want to have a weekend where I can sit in my PJs and do nothing all day. There's also my mother's birthday and my nieces birthday. Thank goodness Nik and I didn't get married in October!

Plus I'm tired. I have prenatal appointments all the time and I like to complain!!!

Whoops!

I've neglected this blog for a long time. It was a long summer and I spent a lot of time with the kids. It was a great summer, besides all the migraines and morning sickness. Oh yeah, I'm pregnant! 17 weeks pregnant, to be exact.

We're over the moon excited for baby number three!

Now that school has started and I'm a couple classes into my graduate program, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Dougie has started PreK and is LOVING it.

I hope to update more, but I can't promise anything!

Quilt Along

I'm participating in an online Quilt Along (I know, right? When did I turn 80?) and I'm so excited! I bought my fabric and cut it this week, combining Weeks 1 and 2. (Quilt Along can be found here)

Here are some pics. It's going to be a twin size quilt, so I'm hoping it will be Kate's quilt for her big girl bed! I'm thinking she'll be ready for a big girl bed by Christmas, so it gives me a little bit of time to finish!

Pretty piecing...

Middle of the quilt...

My fabric choices for the quilt along....

All my strips ready to be cut into squares...

Wordless Wednesay

It sounds fun, but after two weeks, it's not so much...

Ahh, the solar car unit. The kids ACHE to start this unit all year long. The excitement builds as the snow begins to melt and we start talking about Pinkham Notch...then, after we return, it's go time. This year my students made 7 cars. Almost all of them ran in the races the other day. For some reason some of them didn't leave the starting line. Here's a few shots I managed to take on Thursday, the day of the race!

Getting ready to start a race, covering the solar panels with cardboard!

and away they go!

a shot of a couple cars from my class...

They are all so CREATIVE!

This car was not from my class, but won the "kids choice" award for most creative! (Each car had to hold a 'payload' which was a soda can) Love this one!

Pink and Orange

my new favorite pillow combo!

Quilt in Progress

What did I get myself into? My students, after I threw out MANY ideas of what to do for our artists and authors night, asked if we could make a class "Memory Quilt". Sure. Okay. Let's do it. Oh, it's due this Thursday and I only have 8 out of 20 squares done. Awesome.

I didn't die.

I'm not trying to sound dramatic here. But, I didn't die! After two years of not being able to participate in Pinkham Notch hikes, this year I had no excuse. I wasn't pregnant, I wasn't nursing, I was physically capable, or so other people thought. I had my doubts and subconsciously I was afraid I couldn't do it.

I didn't go into this blind. I started walking on the treadmill every morning, but still, a treadnill does not compare to a mountain!

Here's the view at the top of our Alliteration Alley Hike, on Lila's Ledge:

I have a picture of my hiking group sitting on the rock at Lila's Ledge (before it started to hail like the Gods were angry at us) but I'm afraid to post it because I don't have permission from parents to post their kids pictures here.

Here I am on top of Brad's Bluff (are you seeing the Alliteration Alley theme?)

Yes, I may have been last, but the group was nice and called me the "sweeper". I didn't fall behind too often, but seriously, this hike was straight up. Every time I thought we were done going up, it got steeper. I was so proud of myself for finishing.

But, what goes up...

Must come down. I think going down might have been worse. Sure, I wasn't out of breath or stopping for water as often, but my shins...my god my shins! Down was just as steep, if not steeper (we made a loop, Leibskin's Loop, and didn't return the way we came) and my toes and shins were on FIRE. This is a picture of going down (Notice the kids backs, not their faces!) before it got really hairy. I didn't even have time to take out my camera when we were going down George's Gorge because it was so rocky and so steep. But, we all made it. No worries.

The last day (well, morning really), we took a short hike to Chrystal Cascades. Beautiful!

I have some great pictures of the waterfall, but unfortunately, they have students in them as well. I considered blurring out their faces, but come on, I don't have that kind of time!

I missed my kids. You know, MY kids. Kate and Dougie. When Kate woke up from her nap after I came home, I ran upstairs. Care to guess what the first thing she said to me was?

"Stinky Diaper!"

So, I changed her. Ahhh....Back to reality!

Wordless Wednesday: Photos by Ross

Scrap Quilt

I'm making color blocks from all my scraps....I'm not using a pattern, just making sure I end up with a square block, it's a really fun way of quilting! Can't wait to see it when it's done!

Red Block

Orange Block

My Boy

Then:

Douglass Aiden Starkey

Born: March 28, 2006

8 lbs even

20 inches

Likes: eating, pooping, sleeping

Dislikes: getting diaper changed, sleeping through the night, losing his pacifier.

Nicknames: Little Dougie, LD, Dougie

Now:

Over three feet tall

44 pounds

Likes: baseball, Super Friends, Wii, pushing his sister, cuddling before going to the sitter's house, swimming, playing outside

Dislikes: potatoes, cooked carrots, waking up, timeouts for pushing his sister.

Dougie turned 4 this weekend while we were in Vermont. I can't believe 4 years had gone by since he was born! Time flies. This morning I called and set up an appointment to register Dougie for Pre-Kindergarten. Public School! I can't believe he's already ready for public school!

Dougie changed my life from the moment I found out I was pregnant. I love you, Dougie!

Harry Potter Humor

I saw this picture on an ONTD post and almost spit out my water, hilarity ensued.

We need dry land.

This is the way out. The way to work, to family and to friends. This way was blocked.

This is the water that was in our basement, so much that the sump pump couldn't keep up.
Being with family makes it worth it. Many thanks to the Coppolas!

Here's Ross with three kids. Don't you think he'd make a good dad?

Excerpt from Dear Dumb Diary that made me LOL (Laugh Out Loud)

Dear Dumb Diary,

TEACHERS DON'T FART.

I spend something like eight months a year, seven hours a day with teachers. If they did, I'd know it. Moms do it. Dads do it. Beagles do it (sometimes so bad that your eyes burn and your lungs might try to escape by jumping out your mouth).

Even I do it. One time I had a fart that lasted so long, that around the midde of the fart I was thinking back to when the fart began.

Anyway, I was thinking about teachers and their intestinal gas today in school and that may have prevented me from learning anything. Maybe the teachers just need to try harder. (To teach me thing, that is. Not just to cut one.)

Seriously though, it's hard for me to blame teachers. It's probably pretty tough to stand up in front of us normal human beings and try to convince us that the equator is interesting, or the clothes that the people in Wheretheheckistan wear are beautiful. (Fashion in other countries sometimes appear to based on one person daring another person to wear something in public.)

Fortunately, I do have one teacher who I always like: Miss Anderson, my art teacher. She's my BFT, which is like a BFF but it's for teachers. She is pretty enough to be a waitress, and she notices important things like when I create my own private glitter blends. (Currently, I'm using a secret mixture of gold, red and magenta. It's pretty much magnificent.)

Hello World

You are forewarned that this blog post is going to be random and will probably be LONG.

I'm thirty. THIRTY. When did that happen? We celebrated my birthday A LOT. Apparently, I'm a likable person. Nik threw me a surprise party with all my friends (except the ones that live overseas, AHEMLIZCONNORAHEM, and it was wonderful. He did a great job. I think he now appreciates how much work and stress putting together a party can be. I love that man so much. I'm so glad to be married to him. Nik and I also played hooky ON my birthday and just relaxed together. I was really wonderful. He took me out to lunch and we talked and ate and talked some more. I had a wonderful time. My students also threw me a surprise party that they told me about. (Go ahead a read that sentence again, yes, they told me about my party) They really put A LOT of thought and attention into everything and it was wonderful!


They gave me two Pandora charms for my bracelet and the best present of all? Food Poisoning. Yup. Seven kids from my class got food poisoning from the party. It was NOT a fun time. But, I've decided not to tell the parent who brought the culprit about it. No need to make her feel bad, I KNOW she didn't do it on purpose.

Friday, after my party, before I was sick, I chopped all my hair off. Well, I didn't chop it myself, I hired this lady to do it. (Julie's Mom!!)

and I think she did a pretty good job.



Sunday, Nik worked overtime, since he couldn't on Saturday since I was trying to keep all bodily fluids under control. The kids and I went to my Mom's and hung out with them, played some Wii and Scrabble and then went out to dinner. I was able to snap these adorable shots of Kate.




Now for more randomness.

I have "What's Next" syndrome. You know that feeling when everything is great, you know you love your life, but nothing BIG is happening and you're wondering, What's Next? Yeah, I have that.

I had a baby at 26, put on an addition to the house at 27, had a baby at 28, went to Ireland at 29 and 30? No big plans. We are going away for a long weekend in March...but no baby plans until I'm 31. (School year, DAMN YOU!) I wanted to work on my Master's Degree, but with the budget being frozen, the district wont pay for it. Why would I pay for it myself when it's in my contract that they WILL pay for it? (just not NOW, but they have to pay for it eventually) I want to have another baby, but Nik isn't ready yet, so we're waiting. Plus, if we did it now, we'd have another fall baby, and I couldn't do that to myself and my students again. So, What's Next, blogosphere?

Oh, I won two dollars playing Blackout Bingo! I have my first cavity, which I am getting filled today.

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I've been neglecting you. I promise to spend more time with you, soon.

Signed,

Pam