Snow!

There might not be snow in Africa this Christmastime, but there IS snow in Maryland for Christmas Eve! Owen proclaimed it to be a Christmas miracle.

Have you actually ever thought about the lyrics of that Band Aid song? They are sort of bizarre when you get right down to it:

But say a prayer,
Pray for the other ones.
At Christmas time, it's hard but when you're having fun.
There's a world outside your window
And it's a world of dread and fear
Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears
And the Christmas bells that ring there
Are the clanging chimes of doom.
Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you.

We have had a great couple of days at parties with friends. Tomorrow it's off to Grandmom and Pop's for Henneberry chaos and then a visit to the McCarter farm a few days later. Can't wait!

Merry Christmas!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Another Day Has Come

We have reached yet another milestone in the ClanMcCarter household. It is a Sunday morning at 10:10 AM and one of my children (I suspect it is Evan) has just woken up. This is not out of the ordinary nor miraculous, but the fact that he headed directly to the bathroom and turned on the shower and got into it without a single reminder is truly one of those indescribable Christmas miracles.

Wow!

The Day Has Come

I have officially run out of Picasa storage. :-(

If I delete photos, they won't show up on my older blog posts. :-(

If I continue to blog on this blog, I can't post photos and then you only get to read my rantings which might not be so much fun. 
:-(

Deciding if I want to set up a whole new blog with a new email address is quite the conundrum. :-(

Do I have the energy for ClanMcCarter 2.0?

I think I do. Stay tuned.

Photo Book

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Reality Does Not Bite

I am sat on my sofa uploading photos to Shutterfly so I can create a few photo books this afternoon before a coupon expires. It is a miserable rainy day and I am reminiscing of days in England: cold feet, a cuppa on the side table, the pitter patter of rain on the window. However, my internet speed is incredible. I am uploading photos at lightning speed. This fact jars me back into reality because this is not England where internet crawls at a snail's pace especially on rainy days. This is America where the internet rocks. For this, I am thankful.

Flo.rida

Last weekend, the kids had a four-day holiday due to the coincidence of end of marking period and Election Day so Owen, Finn and I did what any smart Marylanders would and headed to Florida to visit family. Craig and Evan are the worker types and couldn't come. 

 Owen immediately decided he loved Florida because they have reptiles.

We got to spend a couple of days at Uncle Pete's house and enjoyed a beautiful day at the beach. Then we headed back to Orlando to conquer Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventures. Pete and his girls, Taylor and Samantha, came along. They even got to play hookie from school which gave the other kids a chance to catch up.

 The kids had lots of cousin time and I think they all enjoyed it.

First, Finn warmed up on a smaller roller coaster. He was hooked. Owen is not 100% sold, but tolerates the smaller ones just like his Mom.

 The Twister ride almost scorched our eyebrows off. Seriously.

 We saw the parade and it was pretty good. Nothing like Disney though.

Hi, Lorax!

 Hi, Spongebob.

We sat in a great spot. The entertainment was great and they had pogo stick jumpers which entertained the kids...

 Boing!

 as did the confetti.

It is Movember after all.

 We went to Despicable Me. Minions are so cute.

 The next day, we headed to Islands of Adventure.

 I just love Dr. Seuss.

 But we all really love Harry Potter.

 Hogsmeade was pretty darn awesome even if it was pretty darn crowded.

 Yowsa!

 The butterbeer was interesting. We decided it was cream soda with a vanilla foam topping.

 Of course, I had to visit the Owl Post office.

 Pretty fake aqueduct

 Hello, Buckbeak!

 Turtles in the moat

 Owen thoroughly enjoyed the aftermath of the Jurassic Park water slide.

The Magneto Electron ride was Owen and Sam's speed whilst waiting for the braver (crazier?) group to disembark the super fast and insane roller coaster zooming over our heads.

We had a great time.

Egg-citing News

On Thursday, I found these in our hen house!

 It seems our girl, Patty, was the first to start laying. The eggs are a greenish-blue pastel in color and very pretty.

 I promptly made breakfast.

 It was very delicious. Fresh eggs really do taste so much better than supermarket eggs.

Later that afternoon, I found a third, brown egg. I am not sure whose it is. My guess is that it is Theola's, our Rhode Island Red. In the past three days, we have received five eggs. Yesterday, Patty laid and egg in Owen's hand! Yes, really.  

 Also yesterday, I hatched a plan of my own. I was a craft vendor for the first time ever. It was fun and I made a decent profit.

Post-Halloween Post

As I type, Owen is seated across the table from me completing homework that was assigned on Halloween night (ikr?) and he is having a serious morning after candy fest hypoglycemic crash. Oh the joy, the rapture.

 We were once again excited for Halloween. I think the kids were definitely eager to participate last year, but this year, they are really happy to be back for the awesomely all-American extravaganza. Owen has honestly been preparing his costume for a month now. Here are some photos of my trick or treaters for the non-Facebook set.

Owen was a Dovakiin from Skyrim, an online game that all of his friends know about so they can be impressed for me as I have no clue. Owen went out with friends to their neighborhood and then returned with them to our neighborhood for some double dipping. He made and designed this costume all by himself. I sewed the fur.

As an aside, I miss the UK and the Design and Technology class at the senior school. Owen would have loved it this year! However, I am glad they have removed it from our middle school curriculum here because the class was really lame when Evan had to take it.

 

Finn, my typical laconic teen, actually had a plan a week in advance! He is Slenderman from the online game, Slender, and this costume was much easier to put together, thankfully. Craig calls him the Finnvisible Man.

He went trick or treating with a GIRL who rides his bus and lives down the street. They stopped by and she is adorable, out-going, shorter than Finn with Hermoine Granger hair, and her name is Megan.

Evan left his trick-or-treating days behind in 2007. He won't even answer the door to give out candy. Sigh.
 

I need to pack because the trick or treaters and I are headed to Florida tomorrow to visit my brother-in-law for the long weekend.

I am planning to vote this afternoon and will take the kids so they can witness Democracy (and a Democrat) in action.

Visiting B&O-Themed Places

I have been out and about visiting places this past week or so. The weather has been great lately, like even hot. However, this shall soon come to an end as Frankenstorm AKA Hurricane Sandy is on her merry way to the eastern seaboard. We are stocked with more than enough toilet paper, but I really hope our power does not fail as my freezer is full of food. We are going to need some good neighborliness (hint, hint neighbors) if, no when, we lose power.

Sigh.

Anyway, back to the fun stuff. Last week a friend and I visited Evergreen Museum and Library on Charles Street in Baltimore. It is situated smack dab in between Loyola and Notre Dame Universities yet it is owned by Hopkins. Go figure. At first, I was wary because it needs a serious paint job and the grounds are just so-so, BUT inside IT IS A TREASURE: gorgeous art, books (the books!), glassware, Tiffany lamps, furniture, wood floors, all of it. The docent who showed us through was ever so kind. Really worth the $8 tour price. "Evergreen Mansion was built in the mid-19th century and bought in 1878 by the president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, John W. Garrett.  The home grew and became both luxurious and famous." (Wikipedia) It has a gold bathroom - 'nuff said. It was John Garrett who was the instigator to persuade Johns Hopkins to donate money for the university which bears his name. Evergreen was donated to Hopkins in 1942 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

If anyone wants to go, I would gladly return.

The canopy of the new main entrance

 

 What it looks like underneath

 

Roof ornaments

 Moi

We had lunch with another friend at Miss Shirley's Cafe where I could probably eat everyday if given the chance and a bottomless wallet. Everything sounded so delicious.

Then this week, I went to 

 

Savage Mill 

to do a mini-shop but really to see 

 the Bollman Iron Truss Railroad Bridge. 

It is a National Historic Landmark and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark because it is the "sole surviving example of the first successful iron bridge design widely used by the railroads from 1850-1875. It was invented by Wendell A. Bollman, a prominent Baltimore civil engineer." The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad built about 100 of these bridges over 25 years. This one spans the Little Patuxent River in Savage and is located right next to Savage Mill. It's a nice afternoon visit. One can walk along the river, shop and have a yummy meal at the Ram's Head. What more can one ask for?

 

 

 

 That is a lot of iron.

 

Negligence & Fall

A whole month has gone by since I last put fingertips to keyboard. One whole month! Must be because I have become the taxi driver to the Clan. Oh, and chief organizer of the college applications. Ugh. I do not even want to go there.

However, I do want to say that there is a ridiculous amount of acorns in our Oak Crest neighborhood.

So many that I am considering scraping some of the acorn mash off of the street to feed to the chickens. When cars drive down our street, a cloud of acorn dust settles after their wake. I have been all stuffed up and sniffly and while a friend suggested it was because Mitt Romney was in the air, I actually think it's from the acorn dust. Oh well, at least maybe the squirrels

and the deer (art by Finn)

 will leave our pumpkins alone this year as there is plenty of nuts to eat.

Fall is here. It's my favorite season by far. Too bad the mornings are so dark, We (meaning the kids) are having lots of trouble getting out of the door in time for school buses.