the day after surgery

 

 

back from surgery. torn labrum and the ligament connecting to it. lots of pain but feeling okay. lots of love and concern from faily and friends.....thank nyou! typinh with one hand is tough!!

 

callum took this of us.....i love this photo!

 

callum using his new xc skis on sunday! a hand-me-down from the heusers! he loves them!

speaking of heusers.....here is dr tom, me, and pastor, shortly before dr tom put me under....dont i look drugged? haha

callum is very conerned about me and takes good care of me! he insisted that i take his most prized possession--puppy--to the hospital with me! this is me right after waking up....

and, lastly, my beautiful 'princess angelina'......love her to pieces!

Pirates and idiots

 

First, a pirate. But not just any old pirate. A very imaginative pirate. I dont know for what reason, but CS has been very much into pirates lately...perhaps he saw something on tv, etc. I just love his imagination: He wears his cowboy hat sideways so it is a pirate hat...then he took his CARS belt and had me fasten it diagonally (like a bandoleer)....and THEN he needed his "parrot." So he took his little parrot thing he got at Agway with all his other animals, and he had me tape it to his belt. I could not take him seriously. And he was wicked serious and into his "character." He kept getting mad cuz I just kept laughing in his face.....also, please notice the pirate ship in the background, which is made out of an empty rubbermaid tote, with a yardstick for a mast, yellow papers for sails.....and, of course, a 'jolly roger' skull and crossbones homemade flag....

 

As a last hurrah before my surgery, I went to visit Jezsiin and Efthemios for a little getaway #winteredition. As always, we ate and ate and ate....and we laughed and laughed and laughed....hilights were, of course, Five Guys Burgers, Zachary's breakfast, and Wings while watching the Bruins game....it is always such a recharge to get spend time with these idiots. Jawn, we missed you man! At least we got to talk to youse on skype.............

This is another photo from our little snowshoe trip on Saturday....BUT THIS ONE is a fifty dollar photo! Why, you might ask? Amanda is 'friends' with Lake George on Facebook....they were having a contest where, if you found this large boulder in the woods, and got your picture taken by it (and if you were one of the first five people to do this) you won a season pass to the lake! Congrats Amanda on winning so that I can now spend that money at Oak Pond Brewery, which is only 200 yards away.....

The SaturdayDonutTradition continues. This time "pink donuts" from Hillmans. Notice how Maira is out of her high chair and in her big-girl seat? She loves it--but it is cute...she doesnt sit....she 'kneels' all the time

Snowshoe (grownups only)

First, though, I just love how much Maira and Callum have been into their reading lately....ever since Amanda brought their little table up from the den, both of them just sit and read their books for long periods of time....I dont know if you can tell by blowing this up, but all Callum wants to read lately is BATMAN. And Maira is really into her SPOT books as well as THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR....


Since my surgery is this Tuesday, Amanda and I were supposed to go away this weekend up to Seawall for the night; however, the snowstorm we are currently getting foiled those plans. Instead, Lynne and George watched the kids yesterday afternoon, and Sally and I made our way to Lake George--a summer mainstay for the Goldsmiths--and did some snowshoeing on all the great trails there! The snow-pac was not bad...but Amanda kept getting us lost with her poor map reading skillz....lulz, even....

We had great fun....first, we got a coffee at CUmberland Farms (probably the best coffee around!), and then we paid a visit to Oak Pond Brewery where I filled up FOUR growlers (two storyteller, one Oktoberfest, one Dooryard....and I will probably drink them all alone.....), and then we hopped over to Lake George. Great trails met up with snowmobile ITS trails, and then we made our way onto the lake, and just walked across the lake!

There were about a dozen shacks on the lake; this actually surprises me because Lake George is not known for (as the Maine sportsmen like to call them) 'trophy fish' like trout and salmon. Rather, there are many bass, perch, and sunfish in the lake. But I love catching those! A fish is a fish, I say. Plus, I cant really think of many more beautiful lakes in Maine than Lake George. Amanda absolutely become enamored with the idea of ice fishing--not necessarily the 'fishing' part...but the ATVing out there...the shack....the little stove....the thermoses of coffee....the snacks....in her words, she says she wants to get "really into ice fishing!"

After our snowshoe date, we ran over to the RecordConnection in Waterville to check out the Howlin Wolfe blues selection...and then we went to Mainely Brews for dinner. There was a whole other hilarious story to that place...but perhaps Amanda will tell you...

A great date with a great wife!!!!!!!

Virus

Hi all. Sorry for the lack of any new posts. Our computer is all messed up....we have viruses, et al. We need Georgeth to help us. We hope to be back on track soon! Lots of stuff to post. Be well! Check back.

Just some stuff....

Every once in a while it is good to do a 'bulleted point' list like this so, when we look back in years to come, we can see what we were up to in, say, February of '13. So....some random thoughts....

*Maira continues to LOVE baking with Amanda...it has become somewhat of a tradition that on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Callum is at school, Amanda and Maira bake cookies or cupcakes. Today, for Valentine's Day, they made cupcakes and Senor Andresen's amazing ginger cookies...

*Callum and Maira continue to be clinically obsessed with Calliou DVDs, watching them almost exclusively. Whenever anything is about Christmas at all, Maira says Christmas "Lights." For example, the Elmo Save Christmas DVD is called, by Maira, "Elmo Christmas Lights"

*the snow we got is quickly melting. Obviously. This always happens. We need more. It has been in the 40s all week. Sucks. Bring on the arctic chills!!!

*We actually spent all afternoon today outside with the kids, running, riding bikes, and building snow fort things....today was the first day that Maira, I would say, was actually a legit 'runner.' The little girl is good! She seems to have the running bug as well!

*Amanda is getting ready to take her first "solo" trip (since the kids have been born) tomorrow....she is heading down to Rochester to visit with Andrea....so it will just be the kids and yours truly.

*Feb vacation starts after school tomorrow....one thing Amanda and I will do NEXT weekend is go away overnight--without kids--up on Mt Desert or something....THANKS MEE MEE AND GRAMPY for watching the kids! A trip away is awesome because........

*I am starting to get the house in order for my surgery coming up on the 26th--the MRI I had showed that I tore my labrum (shoulder) and I am gonna get surgery to have it fixed. Feeling kind of down about this....gonna be rough: sling for 8 weeks....very very limited activity....lots of PT....etc. I am wondering how I am going to drive to school when I go back--both of our cars are standards. Also,I am worried about how I am going to pick up the kids from daycare, etc. So I have a lot of firewood stuff to do next week so Amanda is all set to take care of things!

*Callum continues to love school more and more each time he goes...today he was ECSTATIC because they had a Valentine's party...he came home with his huge bag of valentines from his friends.

*Callum also has his first "best friend," a little boy named Daniel. Callum's whole world lately is "Daniel" this and "Daniel" that....

*Reading a pretty good book called "All the tea in China," and it is a nonfiction piece about how England stole the tea plant from China to make money....very interesting stuff actually...and some of the toughest vocab I have ever read in a book....seriously....

*On this Valentine's day, I am grateful to experience all the different types of love that exist in the world: I have the romantic love of a stellar wife. I have the paternal love for my two beautiful children. I have the love of my church and my faith. And I have the fraternal love my friends and I share. And soon, with those wonderful friends, I will experience 'wing-ly' love as well....

February Blizzard

 

I have no idea how much snow we got....I mean, probably a couple of feet at least....but it was all so drifty....some parts of our yard had six or seven foot drifts that were over Callum's head...and some parts of our lawn were bare from the intense and crazy wind we had....Maira wanted nothing to do with going out in the snow. We awoke to snow on Friday morning that started at about six....this was the 'first' of two storms that would hit us. We got dismissed at noon from school on Friday (and the legislature closed at noon too, so we both got out early). Then, on Friday night, the storm intensified like crazy, and it snowed all day long on Saturday until it stopped at about six or seven or so. A great storm--we just love snow. And we are fortunate that our power did not go out!

 

 

Callum and Maira wanted to have a 'snowstorm party,' so they (with Amanda) baked a snowday cake. Can you tell who decorated this cake???

 

 

 

 

This was one of the snowdrifts outside the front mudroom door....as you can see, we were kind of stuck in the house....

 

This afternoon Callum and Maira's friend Abby came over for some play time. I ended up taking the kids outside for a while to work on a snowfort...but before this, Callum directed both girls up to his room to continue decorating for the snowstorm party....you can see Maira and Abby playing with the streamers and decorations Callum pulled out of the closet....and, on top of his bed, Callum had his "Illustrated Ballet" book ready to read to the girls as part of the party. He sat on his ladder and read to the girls. Please notice the cape that Callum wears most of the time these days.....

 

 

I couldnt resist snapping this picture of Callum playing with Anderson, Abby's little brother. Callum (and Maira too!!) is great with babies....Callum brought out a bunch of farm animals for 'Andy' to play with, and, in Callum's words, he was "babysitting Anderson." Even though I am a guy, I have to admit it was really cute #sorryTim.

To the casual passer-by or onlooker, I must have, in my ATV plowing situation, resembled something like Toad of "Toad Hall" from THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. In short, the ATV was basically useless when it came to handling any snow yesterday. The drifts were just too much. But I tired and tried and tried.....and got stuck and stuck and stuck. Not to mention I bent both my pins that hold the plow on. All in all not a good situation. I may put away the plow for a while and just focus on my ice fishing racing series. Plus, sometimes in life, you work hard only to have a big yellow monster (see below) come and laugh you in the face.

Public Works:  1........Jared Goldsmith: -7.

Mornings with Maira...

 

Hi all. Amanda here. One of my favorite things is to watch how Callum and Maira interact with each other. Most of the time it's good. Some of the time it's frustrating, but most of the time they get along, share, and generally show each other how much they love each other. Tuesday morning was one of those times. Callum was at the top of the stairs reading a book while I was getting Maira dressed. As soon as she was finished Maira rushed to their room, grabbed her book, and ran over to Buddy (Callum). "Can I read with you, Buddy?" she says. "Yes, you can!" is Callum's response. Then she says to me, "Mommy! Buddy said YES!" with this huge smile on her face. So I captured this picture:

I love how much they love their books. After we got downstairs, Callum decided to teach Maira about bookmarks and how to use them. We've started reading Charlotte's Web with Callum and not only is he liking the story, but he is LOVING using his bookmark to save his place in the book. Maira, of course, wanted to use a bookmark too. She usually wants to do whatever Buddy is doing...

So Callum has started Preschool and so far he really likes it. Of course he gives us the usual 'morning of complaints' -- 'I hate school!' and 'I want to stay home - my belly hurts!' but he is 4 years old, will be 5 in June, and this is good for him. Inevitably when I go to pick him up he doesn't want to leave because he's having such a good time. And he is always thinking about things he wants to bring to show his friends at school, etc... So I'm not worried. Anyway, Maira and I get to hang out together and have some girl time while he's at school. Mornings with Maira! Here's what we were up to this morning:

I brought the play kitchen into our kitchen and Maira got right to work. Of course Baby Ashley had to join us - it was snack time for her! Maira's favorite thing to make in her kitchen is soup. Hands down. If you ever ask her what she's making, her answer will always be 'soup'. Unless she's making tea.

We also made a batch of chocolate chip cookies - for real. She helped me by adding some of the ingredients (she liked putting in the chocolate chips the best) and mixing the batter. Oh, and taste testing, of course!

My future baker....

Ice fishing: Kid's Edition

 

We took to the ice again yesterday on Salmon Lake: Just like last time, it was Brad, Art, and I. Butttt this time we also took Callum, Caden, and Mia out for a little ice fishing jaunt. Bad news: Not so much as a wind flag. NOTHING. AT. ALL. in the way of fish. We saw two other parties who said the same. Good news: Kids outside. ATVs. Donuts. Stories. Good friends. DaddyTime. Thermoscoffee.

 

Callum, who has more irrational fears than anyone I know, absolutely embraces everything about the outdoors--especially ice fishing. He and Mia got right to work, scooping out holes, 'plowing' the snow away that the auger left, etc. Callum brought his toy plow (to plow away snow) and his rescue helicopter (in case anyone fell through the ice and needed to be rescued). But, since the ice was aout 13 inches thick, luckily, we did not need SearchandRescue Callum......

 

 

 

I made a deal with the kids: As long as they finished their two Budweisers, they could drive the ATV all by themselves.....

(actually, what was funny, was how the kids used the ATV to stay warm.... ATVs run really really hot...and when you straddle the seat while riding, you can really feel the heat against your legs.....#thatswhatshesaid)

Look at the difference between this week's ice and last week's ice, oh-ye-old-blog-readers. Last week we had some decent snowpac and...well...traction. With last week's rain and 54 degree temps, we had something very different yesterday....very very slippery glare ice....the ATV was useless in two wheel drive....BUTTTT we had an unbelievable time doing donuts and spinning all over the ice. Below, Callum gets ready to go on a 'nice long ride' with Brad...I love the little seat Brad has in back of his ATV....the Goldsmiths need something like this....

Good memories to last a lifetime.....hopefully next year I can take Maira out too....

I've got to hand it to the kids: In two-plus hours, not once did I hear any 'hint' of I'M COLD or I'M BORED or anything like that. I think kids just love to be outside. Very healthy--physically, mentally, and emotionally. Poor Art didnt make it into any of these pictures (he is in some videos), but Callum had a blast talkin to Art as well. The kids played "hockey" with the ice scoops and snowballs that they made....we ate donuts....ran around....went on rides....drilled holes......and Callum threw sneaky snowballs at Art. High comedy......

 

 

Check back later for some videos....

Games

Does anyone still play games? No....not video games or those shoot em up things #stuffoldmenwouldsay.............but I mean REAL games. I love board games and wish I played them more. Amanda and I always strive to do so, but it never materializes. Cribbage is one of my favorite things in the world. And I would love to play some chess with Amanda. I also love RISK! but, in the ten years we have been up here, have yet to find anyone with whom to play....

As a teacher I can tell you that, despite what the rest of the world thinks (that kids are all addicted to video games), a lot of kids still LOVE games. I would say that half of my kids regularly play cribbage; it is a big 'Maine' game. And of course SORRY is a huge winner with kids. As is RISK. Apples to Apples is another best seller. Along with Taboo. BY THE WAY, let me just say that Jason Ponticelli and I would like to extend an OPEN INVITATION to ANYONE in the world who thinks they can beat us (or even come CLOSE) at Taboo. We are virtually unbeatable at this game. #nuffsaid. #bringit. #youcant.

In the weather, it was 54 degrees yesterday. This is 58 degrees warmer than it was merely four days before. All our snow (it was ugly anyway) is gone. And, as I write this, we are back to 9 degrees. What a weird, weird winter. It is depressing actually. Can we get some snow??

Our weekend looks fun. Hopefully. There is a possible ice fishing trip tomorrow with Callum, me, Brad, and Mia. We also may go down to LL Crap. Callum needs new sneakers. #excitinglives. #toomanyhashtags. #ifmymomreadthis,shewouldaskwhatahashtagis. Hopefully I will get to a bar somewhere and see some Bruins.

Here are a couple of pictures. Last week at Sunday school,  Callum did a worksheet and one of the questions asked him to draw where you learn about Jesus. His response, as you can see, seems completely appropriate to me....

And then there is Callum's "train." The kid's imagination continues to amaze me. Do you see the "train" he made out of his puppet stage and chair? He has the smokestack with the "blue smoke" (party streamers)? He threw a bunch of toys and stuffed animals underneath the blanket so he could deliver them to kids a-la-Polar Express style....