Marchie's World

A couple things that perhaps some of you have known about... some maybe not.

One, our old photosite has gone out of business, so we have changed photo hosting companies. You can now find all of our pics here: http://marchie.smugmug.com/

Two, we are expecting our second child to be born somewhere around May 30th. Thought you all might like to know :)

I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving. Not to mention Rachel is turning 2 in less than a month. Not to mention that she has been so entranced every time she sees any kind of Christmas display. The next month and a half will be very exciting for her (and us!).

She and I go to the gym 3 times a week on average. When we first started going to the gym there was about a 50/50 chance of getting paged back down to the daycare to pick her up because she was upset and crying. Now, about 6 months after we first joined, she doesn't even turn around to say goodbye when the door opens to let her in (LOL).

Rachel started gymnastics about 2 weeks ago and she really enjoys it. She immediately got the hang of (heh) hanging from the bar and is a little iffy on the balance beam. She really loves it though. No matter what, she always leaves tired, which Mom really likes :)

People who see her now are amazed at how much and well she talks. Some of the things she says are hilarious -
"yessir" to either mom or dad
"Ummmmmmmm..... YES!" instead of "I don't know"
"Gracias, thank you" Thanks to Dora (heh).
She started calling Daddy just "Dad" every so often, much to Archie's disappointment.
When leaving the house, she looked up at the sky just outside the garage. The clouds were moving particularly fast that day and she exclaimed that the house was "moving", very upset!

Well, Rachel and I have been thoroughly enjoying ourselves so far visiting our friends in Waterville, ME... and it has had nothing to do with our current proximity to and availability of lobster, lobster, and even more lobster.

So far, we have eaten lobster, in some form or another, 3 times in 6 days... I think I'm slacking severely though. I finally got some steamers today at lunch, and we're having baked stuffed haddock for dinner... YUMMMMMMMM!! But enough about the lobster...

Rachel and I have spent time touring our (Archie & my) old home town of Bath, Maine, including our extended family's land at Birch Point in West Bath, as well as Augusta, where I used to live prior to meeting Archie.

We were so lucky to get to witness the first-ever football game that the Kornsey boys played in. Unfortunately, they lost 25-0, but it was to the what I was told was the best team in their league. We also went bowling, and have spent some nice time socializing with their neighbors.

Unfortunately, I am leaving here tomorrow to head to NH. I am sad Archie hasn't been here to revisit some of our old haunts, but glad I was able to make it at all. It truly has been too long. On my way out of Dodge tomorrow, I think I'm going to hit up LL Bean's in Freeport for a bit before leaving the Great State of Maine.

Oh, and I have to remember to pick up some (you guessed it!) MORE lobster for Archie to have when he arrives in NH on Thursday night. :)

Rachel and I are preparing for our long overdue trip to New England to visit some old friends. We'll be staying with our friends in Barrington, NH and Waterville, ME for about 5 days each, so we're pretty excited about that right now!

We've been pretty busy, but I couldn't tell you doing WHAT exactly. After our trip to Missouri, Rachel and I went to New York and New Jersey to visit Rachel's grandparents. While we were there, we went on a train ride (www.durr.org), went swimming in Arch & Nan's pool, made a stuffed animal at the Build-A-Bear Workshop, saw the Atlantic Ocean (at Long Branch, NJ), and generally had a good time with family.

More later (hopefully) :)

...but I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. I have been properly chastised on a number of occasions by a number of people about this, but I will apologize again.

We just came back from Missouri. We went down to Richland (actually Hazelgreen, which is about 40 mins southwest of Rolla) to meet up with Archie's sister and her family at her in-law's "U-Pick" blackberry farm. They go there every year to help out with the business and visit with Woody's family. Now that we are in Michigan, it was a good excuse to make the trip. Archie was born in Rolla, and lived there two other times in his life, so he wanted to show Rachel and I around a bit.

Highlights from our trip:

We took 2 canoe trips. We had the unfortunate experience of flipping the canoe over about 10 minutes down the river. Ordinarily that wouldn't have been too big of an issue (we've done it before Rachel was born), but Rachel's memory is getting really good and she was very upset about it for the entire trip, which was about 6 hours long. She kept saying "FALL DOWN!!" over and over. It was very hard to get her to feel at ease, even though she is usually very comfortable in water (we go swimming all the time). Oh, and just so you don't worry, Rachel had her life jacket on the whole time. We took a day off, then did a much calmer trip for our 2nd one, so we would hopefully make Rachel feel more comfortable in the boat. It worked, as she was mostly fine for the whole trip (4 hrs this time). It was just the kind of therapy she needed. Hopefully the next time we go, she will be even better.

Rachel is an accomplished blackberry picker now. She got really good at making sure she only picked the ones that were completely black (no red) and shiny. Then, we had to make sure she put them in the bucket instead of eating them all!! That was quite a challenge .

Rachel got to spend a lot of time with her cousins Emma (8) and Lillian (6). I think they are all enjoying their time together a lot more now that Rachel can actually "play" with them a lot more. She did learn a new word that I'd hoped that she wouldn't have until she has a little brother or sister... "MINE!" Oh boy, now we hear that all the time. BUT, she is also acting a lot more independent (which has its advantages and disadvantages) and determined in her actions (again, good and bad). Oh, and she learned the ABC song also. I'll try to get it on video and post it up for you guys :)

We got to spend some time with one of the Delps' neighbors who have a small 'farm' of their own. They have all sorts of animals that Rachel was able to get some real hands on experience with them all (goats, rabbits, horses, turkeys, hens, chicks, dogs, cats, kittens and guinea pigs). We also spent a lot of time with their kids, as they are close in age to Anne & Woody's girls. Rachel (and Archie and I) loved it all.

First thing this morning and yesterday morning, when I have gone in to get Rachel, I walked in to find her stripped down to her diaper, lying flat on her back. I said "good morning" as usual, and she popped up, and pointed to her pajamas and blanket on the floor (wonder how those got there?), and said "UH OH!" as if she was shocked to discover her clothes were no longer on her body, and on the floor. Very cute :)

It's been a while since my last entry. Sorry about that. Well, I can hardly believe I've been home for almost a month. I still feel like I'm catching up from my trip.

Very shortly after arriving home (about 3 days), Archie's parents drove up to visit us and see the new house. During their week-long visit here, we went to the Detroit Zoo, planted our garden, visited Archie's jobsite, and just spent some all-around quality time with each other.

A couple of days after they left, we hosted a Cinco de Mayo party/bbq at our house for Archie's co-workers. Archie smoked ribs for the occasion and a great time was had by all. There was certainly NO shortage of 7-layer dip (ha).

Since then, I've been recovering from all the activity, and trying to readjust to 'normal' life... whatever that is.

Rachel is doing wonderfully. She is growing and changing every day. Her new thing over the past few weeks is temperature. Everything is "hot" until proven otherwise. She puts her hand on it to feel it when she says "hot". Obviously we don't give her anything that actually IS hot, so we have to reassure her that it is not hot. Now she's learning about things that are cold, not just the snow and winter that she learned over the winter.

She is also calling us Mommy and Daddy all the time now. She even looks out at the driveway and says "Daddy" "work" and "Jeep", usually all together, in some combination. And she just says/shouts "Mommy" over and over, (almost) all the time, usually in combination with wanting Mommy also.

Oh, one thing I did over the past few weeks is put away all of Rachel's "baby" stuff that she doesn't need any more - soft blocks, rattles, bouncer, recieving blankets, all of that good stuff. Rachel had a lot of fun trying to keep playing with them as I was collecting and washing them before they got into a storage bin and into the basement.

For Mother's Day, Archie got tickets to the Redwing's playoff game against the Anaheim Ducks from one of his subcontractors. It turned out they were only third row up from the ice, and right next to the home team's box. Very cool, and a fun time was had by all. Rachel particularly liked the Zamboni, had a great time waving to the people that rode around on them. Unfortunately, the Redwings lost, but it didn't effect our enjoyment in the slightest.

Well, we returned safely from Lake Tahoe yesterday after spending 5 great days there. Anne was able to 'borrow' a house in Tahoe City from a friend of hers while her dad/Arch/Grandad was in town. We drove up last Tuesday afternoon on a beautiful sunny day.

Wednesday, we went to Alpine Meadows, where Arch, Woody, Anne, Emma and Lillian skiied for the day while Rachel and I hung out and played around the ski lodge in their kids' play area.

Thursday, Anne and Arch decided to ski together for the day to give the kids a day to rest. They went to Squaw Valley for the day, while Woody, the girls and I went to Bliss Park and hiked around on some boulder outcroppings for a little while and drove down to Emerald Bay.

Friday, the whole gang was back at Alpine Meadows for more skiing. I wasn't planning on skiing while in Tahoe, but when we were at Alpine Meadows on Wednesday, I was able to find a pair of ski pants that fit me in their end-of-season sale, and also bought a new helmet (Archie and I haven't skiied with them yet), so we decided there was no reason for me not to ski also. So, Anne stayed inside with Rachel and I got a rental and got to ski! It was so unbelievable to look over Lake Tahoe from up on top of the mountain. Those that live in this area are so lucky to have that available at their fingertips. After skiing, we went out to dinner with a couple of skiing collegues of Arch Sr's who are based in the Tahoe area, including Mike Rogan who is a bit of a celebrity in the skiing world. They were both very nice and it was interesting to listen to their stories.

Saturday, Anne and I stayed at the house with the kids and recouped from the previous days' activities. We just hung out around the house and played board games.

That was what was in an Easter card :)

What a great day we've had here. We started the day with the girls bouncing off the walls wanting to see what the Easter Bunny brought them. Then an awesome breakfast of eggs (duh) and Anne's banana coconut chocolate chip bread (yummmmmmm) followed by everyone getting all dressed up for church services. The church service was really lovely, with the entire congregation joining in a rendition of Handel's Alleluiah accompanied brass and percussionists.

We arrived home to find Anne & Woody's neighbor, Kim, cooking our Easter dinner for us (which we were expecting, if you were wondering). She made a magnificent spread of ham, homemade scalloped potatoes and asparagus, followed by a rhubarb cobbler with fresh whipped cream. Yummmmmm.

After we finished stuffing ourselves sufficiently, we went to nearby Joaquin Miller Park and worked off our dinner. Rachel was not as enthralled with the swings as she once was, but she now LOVES the slide. She especially likes trying to climb/walk back UP the slide. She is also very brave about it, as she is not afraid to go down on her belly and/or face first. Here are a couple of videos from the playground.

Rachel got to participate in tumbling class at Ruby's Tumbling in Alameda this morning and absolutely LOVED it.

Here are some short clips of the class. Sorry for some shakiness and jerkiness on the video - they were taken by my 8 year old neice, Emma.

I guess that makes it sound like we're out sunning ourselves in a posh resort somewhere. Well, we're not. BUT! It has been absolutely gorgeous in the Bay Area since we arrived safely on Tuesday. Rachel and I haven't done too much out of the ordinary here (run to the market, pick up the girls from school and other activities, etc) just yet, but it is great just to be here and be able to spend some 'normal' time with them and Anne and Woody.

Rachel has done really well getting along and playing harmoniously with her cousins. They will be really great babysitters when they get a little bit older. She has also taken to her Aunt Anne again, but I don't think there was much of a choice in the matter. Uncle Woody, however, is another story. (haha) She shakes her head (no) whenever he comes in the room or talks to her (or near her or away from her, or ANYTIME). Poor Woody. I think things are warming up though.

Today our plans are to take Rachel to the girls' gymnastics place so she can go 'tumbling' with other kids her age. They start with the babies at 16 months so she is here at exactly the right time. I will try to get some video and post it up. Then later, a real estate agent/parent at the girls' school is sponsoring a coffee/cappuccino bar after school for the parents to celebrate the start of spring break.

We are going to do some stuff locally this weekend. Parks, and maybe the zoo. Then Granddad comes on Monday night, and we all are going to Tahoe on Tuesday.

Rachel and I are preparing to leave for California on Tuesday. So far, we've spent the weekend getting the house picked up and clean. This is so that Archie only has to keep up with his own mess while Rachel and I are gone, so it's only fair that we leave him with a clean slate.

Today I will be amassing a pile of stuff to begin packing, as I have begun a list of things to remember. Now I have to see if I will actually be able to fit everything into a bag (or two)! Luckily, Archie's sister Anne (who we will be staying with for the majority of our visit) has friends who she can borrow many baby items (car seat, play pen, etc) from for us to use during our visit. It certainly saves me a lot of hassle.

This morning we used some of the last of our (frozen) wild blackberries in our pancake breakfast. Archie asked if our house in NY still hasn't sold this summer if I want to go back there to pick the blackberries. I said I think I could find a berry-picking place much closer, and spend a lot less money for them than we would by driving back there!

Well, time to get back to work! Don't know if I'll be able to write more before I get to CA, but I'll certainly keep you updated once I get there!

I finally uploaded our pictures to our photosite. Click on the Marchie's Photosite link on the bottom of the left side of the page.

Well, it works, but it seems like the sound and video are not in synch. You get the point though :)

I finally replaced my PC with a laptop. Hopefully I will get the picture end of things caught up soon.

Rachel and I will be going to California to visit family next week. We will be gone for 3 weeks - poor Archie won't know what to do without us.

I woke up with an awful cold this morning. I feel yucky.

Archie was teaching Rachel how to blink yesterday. It was hilarious. Every time he said "blink" she started laughing hysterically. He also is working with her on doing somersaults. She has started putting her head down on the ground from a standing position like she wants to do one anyway, so we have just been helping her along.

She still loves her vegetables, and has recently mastered the word "broccoli", which is one of her favorites. So there was a short period where everything she pointed to was called broccoli as it also became one of her favorite words to say.

Rachel has started to 'run'. When she's got her little pink Converse "Chuck's" on, it is so funny to hear her little feet stomping all over the place.

We're in 'pop' country. The aisle in the grocery store that has Coke and Pepsi in it says "pop" on the aisle sign.

There are no WHITE american Kraft cheese singles (or other brands). They only have yellow and orange type. I have looked in about 4 grocery stores (all different chains) and none of them have them. You have to buy it at the deli. I guess in the long run that's better for us as the singles are probably highly 'processed' foods.

ok... this seems to be mostly food related. Sorry.

What we knew of as Arnold brand breads 'back East' is Brownberry brand. Same logo and packaging, just a different brand name.

They have lots of restaurants with variations of "Coney Island" in the name. I was very confused about the high volume of that "theme" restaurant in Michigan. I didn't know if there was some connection between Michigan and Coney Island, NY, or if there was a Coney Island somewhere here in Michigan. Nope. It turns out that they call hot dogs "Coney's". Very strange.

Ok, that's all for now.

Nope, no pictures still.

Well, we joined a local gym, and have gone a couple of times so far. However, we put Rachel in the child care area and I guess she didn't do too well for very long (about a half hour). I think it was mostly my fault though, as I kind of set her up for failure - she didn't have her afternoon nap that day so she was pretty out of control by the time we got down there (they give them 10 or so minutes to calm down before calling the parent over the intercom). Yeah, that was fun. So we will give it another shot sometime soon under better circumstances.

Oops, gotta run. Will talk again soon hopefully :)

We have now been in our house for a little over 3 weeks and things are getting there, slowly but surely. The big stuff is done and now it is time to find homes for all of the little stuff... even if the stuff's new "home" is the trash can. We really have been hauling and saving a bunch of stuff that we haven't looked at for over two years, so we are working on being very diligent on getting rid of stuff. Since we have been here we have also been acquiring new stuff (kinda like the circle of life, right?) - a microwave (the one that came with the house is one that is tiny, has very little power, and is so old it doesn't even have a turntable), some area rugs, and mostly things to help organize the house (racks, bins, etc).

This afternoon I gave Rachel her second haircut. We'll have to see whether it needs touching up after I wash it. The hair that is at the top of her head (the crown area) is still the same type of hair she was born with - dark and straight - while the stuff underneath it, down around the nape of her neck, is the "newer" stuff lighter and curlier. So, I kind of gave her a layered cut, so the under stuff can catch up with the top stuff. The top stuff seems to grow faster, but it could have just been how I cut it the first time, we'll have to see. Archie's next, but I think we'll just stick with the same cut for him :-P

We were going to go and find the local dog park today, but the weather was a little overcast on top of the rather cold temperatures (low 20's) and a bit of snow, so I think we lost our motivation on that one. We'll have to make up for it by taking Millie for walks around the neighborhood this week. It will be good for all of us (Millie included) to be up and moving around. I think I am going to go around to some of the local 'gym' type places soon to see what they have to offer. I saw a Gymboree place not very far away, but according to their website, they charge $65 a month, and you only get one class a week for that price. Seems pretty high to me. So, we'll look at the Y and such as I know they have swimming for babies and maybe one or two other programs, as well as stuff for mom and dad :)

Well, that's all I've got for now. My computer kind of crapped out before we moved, so I am way behind on my pictures and stuff, so I apologize for not staying up to date on that. I did just get a good headstart on getting our office set up and organized, so I will be able to use Archie's in the meantime (til we figure out what we're going to do about mine).

TTFN

Here ya go :lol:

Well, we're buttoning things up here. The movers are coming in less than a week to pack us up (eek!) and we still have to take a quick trip down to Archie's parents house to drop off his Jeep and trailer. Since there are somewhat iffy rules when you live in a subdivision like the one we're moving into, we're just going to leave them at his parents' place for the time being.

We had a great time over the weekend on one last hoorah with our friends back in New England. As usual Portsmouth played a great host to our group of delinquents :) I am really going to miss those guys even more now. It was bad enough being a 6 hour drive away, but now we are going to be a plane ride away, and you can't just do that whenever.

One nice part of the weekend was that Mommy & Daddy spent the first night away from Rachel. Archie's mom came up and spent the night with her while we had fun (well, she was here for about 4 days, but the important part was her being here while we were gone the one night). It was a little tough on us, but apparently Rachel was unphased, which is GREAT! Plus, she got to have some last minute time with Grandma before moving away.

I did have some sad news before the party started this weekend. My Uncle Doug had a stroke on Thursday. My mother flew out to California to be with her family. Apparently he was in a vegetative state that he wouldn't ever likely recover from, so the family gave permission to take him off of the life support. He died about 15 minutes later. I know that he is in a better place now as he was going through so much turmoil these last many years. I just wish I could be there with my grandmother and mother and aunt to help comfort them.

On a lighter note, Rachel has been amazing me more and more each day. One of her latest things is she now repeats things (somewhat). Like animal noises. As we are reading I ask her what certain animals say. Most of the ones I do she finds hilarious, and some she attempts. Now if you ask her WHAT a cow is (not what it says, just what is it), she says MOOOOO (or her version of it, which sounds almost like a nasal foghorn sound). She also likes to do the monkey noise (ooo ooo eee eee, and the like). Nothing about the doggy, kitty cat, horse, pig, sheep or chicken. OH! She has SORT OF done a duck sound (quack quack), as she loves rubber duckies.

Here's our house listing: MLS# 76375

If you know anyone interested, PLEASE pass the info along!! :)

We put a deposit down on a rental house in Rochester Hills, MI. It should be quite interesting to see what life will be like over the next two years as the house is in a subdivision, something we never thought we'd be doing. But, the house itself is awesome, with tons of space to live and entertain. In actuality, the new house is 12 square feet bigger, but it has WAY much more usable space than our current house.

Enough talk - here are some pictures.

This is the library. It is a small room immediately off of the foyer with built-in bookshelves.















The formal living room is on the other side of the foyer.

This is the family room portion of the Great Room area, in the back of the house. That is a wood-burning fireplace.

View of kitchen and eating area from Family room.

A fully enclosed deck off the back of the eating area.

Laundry room right off of the kitchen and inside the garage entryway.

The garage is a typical 2-car garage (attached).

Unfinished basement

Master bedroom in front of house

Master bathroom with shower stall.

Master bedroom walk in closet

Linen closet

Upstairs hallway

I think this is the largest of the secondary bedrooms, in the front of the house.

A smaller bedroom in back of the house.



Bedroom 3 in back of the house.

Upstairs shared full bath.