The Injured List

I've had a sort of "bad back" for many years now. Back in September, it got bad enough that I went to see a chiropractor and it was getting much better. We had a major breakthrough when he adjusted my tailbone and I was feeling the best I have in years. But now I know what it means to "throw your back out". It happened on Saturday and by Sunday I couldn't even walk. I was able to get into the doc today and things are sort of looking better, but boy oh boy is it painful!

The timing is terrible since it's spring break and we were hoping to do lots of fun things around the city with the kids.... here's hoping for a miracle to at least help the painful symptoms to subside!

Sister S

We love you, Sister S!

See you in 18 months!

Habits That I Cannot Break

As most of you know my passions can be counted on just a few of the fingers on both hands. Music is still by far the most obsessive of my passions (religion and family don't count as obsessive since obsessive connotes not always good for you and religion and family have always been good for me). One of my favorite musicians is a fellow named Brandon Campbell. You don't know who he is but you might soon. He is the bass player in the band Neon Trees who just released their first major label album, Habits on Tuesday. He is probably one of the most tasteful bass player I have ever heard. Never over plays but always plays something worth hearing.

I consider Brandon one of my really good friends. He is humble as pie and cool as a rock star (which he now appears destined to be). I miss living around the corner from him and his family. We live far apart but he and his family always make time for us when we our in town.

In sum I am declaring today "Neon Trees Day". Check them out and slap down your $10 people. If you have a chance to see them live they ARE GREAT LIVE. The best part is they all have been nothing but gracious to me when we were able to see them live twice here in the city. They even let me be their roadie for ten minutes.
Rock on Brandon. Stay humble old friend and remember, I will be your roadie anytime you need one. Viva los Neon Trees!

The Shirt

There is a story behind this shirt. Years ago, when my father proposed marriage to my mother, he wore this shirt. Then, a few years later, Doug wanted to propose to my Aunt Barbara (my mother's younger sister). He conspired with my father to borrow the mushroom shirt for the occasion. The story goes (correct me if I'm wrong!) that when he showed up at the door wearing this shirt, my grandmother started crying because she just knew Doug was coming to propose to her youngest daughter. Tears of joy, of course.

Allie has wanted to get a hold of the shirt for years now, and my father came across it among his things during his recent move. And now she has it.

Race Day

Last Sunday the New York Road Runners Club hosted a 5K race in our neighborhood.  Since church doesn't start until 1, I took the girls down to watch.  There is really so much energy in the air as 7000+ runners go racing by!  This photo is of the girls sitting on the stone wall watching the runners.

T-Minus 6 Days

My darling cousin, who is really more like another sister to me, is entering the Missionary Training Center next week to prepare to be a missionary for our church in Mongolia Tempe, Arizona for 18 months (just yesterday she received word that visas to Mongolia were too difficult to obtain and she had to be reassigned).

Last week she came and spent some days with us- yay!  Here are a few of our adventures:

Liz really wanted to get some cupcakes since she probably wouldn't be having any once she got to Mongolia.  So we took her to our current favorite bakery: Crumbs.  (I love that their address is 321 and A HALF).

She was able to get a nice sampler with 12 different flavors!

Ella chose her standard vanilla with sprinkles, and I went with the peanut butter cup.  Alexis chose a chocolate frosting on vanilla cake, with sprinkles also.

We took them to a playground in Central Park and enjoyed the weather that was a touch warmer than it has been.  (since then we've had even warmer days!)

Liz was very helpful while she was here- watching my kids so I could take care of other pressing matters- like a trip to the chiropractor that was way overdue.  Ella & Liz hung out at Books of Wonder while I was with the doc, then we met up in Madison Sq Park for some Shake Shack!  Ella held our buzzers.

Liz helped us greet Alexis when she came home from school- Lexi even paused for the photo op as she came down the stairs!
(I have a photo to post here, but for some reason the editing I did to wipe out the bus route numbers- so weirdos don't get that information- is not showing up when I upload the photo-I'm a novice at photo editing, so I'll try and figure it out b/c it's a cute photo of her on the bus!)

Liz is amazing with the girls' hair.  I just cannot get them to sit still long enough for me to do something like this!  Not that mine would even look as neat as this, but the girls just adore her and will do whatever she asks of them.

She is an expert reader!

And we just hung out at home together a whole lot, too.

Here are all the Elliott granddaughters: Laura, me, Liz & Allie

Our Little Scholar

A little over a month ago, Alexis had to get glasses. She loves them so much- even though she only has to wear them for school & homework she likes to wear them more often because "they make things not so shaky".

Thanks to Aunt Laura for hooking us up with some frames!

The Assembly Party

On Saturday night, I had a little birthday party to assemble all of the amazing donations I received in an effort to bless some of the world's neediest on their birthdays.

A huge thank you (in no particular order) to MattC, TammyV, MackenzieB, CarrieJ, JenniferW, ArlyE, EmmaA, Marie-AdeleM, SonyaD, AbbieW, JenB, ZacL, JoanC, John&RuthE, LisaR, StephanieB, AprilleK, AlliePo, HeatherP, AngieM, LauraP, SusanP, JessicaH, MalesaB, ErinC, StaceyH, LindaT, & ElaineP, ChristianS!! (Did I miss anyone?!)

Because of all our work, we were able to complete 40 kits!!! Can you believe that? I am so pleased with the result. Thank you all for participating and supporting this effort.

Abbie posted lots of beautiful photos that she took on her blog.  CLICK HERE to see them.

Artemis

Lexi's friend had a Lightening Thief birthday party last Saturday.  The invitation requested that guests come dressed as their favorite Greek god or goddess.  Alexis hasn't really been exposed to the world of Greek mythology yet, so we basically chose a goddess for her: Artemis, goddess of forests and hills, childbirth, virginity, fertility, the hunt, and often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.  Allie and Liz spearheaded the costume-making project and the result was great!

(pardon the background- she's standing on the air mattress that Allie & Liz had slept on the night before in the middle of the living room).

Museum

Ever since we went to the Brooklyn Children's Museum, Ella has been asking to go to a museum again.  So one wintery snowy cold day a couple of weeks ago, I took her to the Museum of Natural History.  She's been before, but I don't think she really remembers it.  She has become interested in dinosaurs (since big sis is interested!) and so we went to see the dinosaurs first.  She was amazed.

Then she kept asking to go see the fish (on second thought, maybe she did remember the museum a little bit)- we headed over to the maritime room where the HUGE whale is suspended from the ceiling and all sorts of fish and aquatic life dioramas are located.

Inner Artist

I had no idea that Ella could draw people!  This is an encyclopedic dictionary whose binding has torn.  One night we hadn't put it away, so when Ella woke up in the morning, she decided this would be the place to show off her awesome art skills.  So although I was a little annoyed that she had written in the book, I couldn't really be very mad, because look how cute those people are!  And now I can never fix the binding on that book.

A Day Out

In February, the public schools here get a week off- so we decided to try out a new place- the Brooklyn Children's Museum.  It's wonderful.  So much better than its Manhattan counterpart.  (Although it seems to be in a kind of sketchy area of Brooklyn).  We had a great time- so many wonderful activities & special events happening that day!

Ella went shopping at an International Grocery Store & the girls worked at a Pizza Parlor for a little while.  The played in sand & water, did all sorts of scavenger hunt-type things, learned about the Gullah people (direct descendants of slaves brought to the United States in the 17th century to work the rice plantation) and just had a good time.  We were sad to leave.

The Ones From Albany

Carolyn and Stew came down to NYC (from Albany) to celebrate her birthday- and came to spend some time with us!

We ate cupcakes from Crumbs (Carolyn licked the plate!), played Bananagrams & let our kids jump all over them.  Good times!

Ella in Nursery

Got this email tonight from one of Ella's nursery leaders:

 

(picture here)

Just thought I'd share a cute moment from nursery today. We had read a book of Daniel in the Lion's Den, and were then playing "We're going on a lion hunt" when I got to the part where we see the lion, I asked "What do we do?" and Ella quickly responded "Pray!"

Birthday Service Project Update

I've completed 10 blankets....

Several items have been purchased through my Amazon wish list (which ships it to me) and I've started receiving items.....

Others have committed verbally to me (my mother-in-law is sending 4 pairs of crocheted booties!)

Still lots to do to reach my goal of 33 kits..... A HEARTY THANK YOU to friends & family that have already contributed.  And if you'd still like to help out, there's plenty to do.....

City Of Hambergers

On Saturday we went to a puppet show at Posman Books in Chelsea Market.  It was based on the book City of Hamburgers.  A German grandmother tells her American-born grandson all about life growing up in Hamburg, as a Hamburger.  And how she eventually met and fell in love with a man from Frankfurt, aka a Frankfurter.  It was imaginative and quirky.

Check out the store's link for a photo of Lexi watching the show!

Aunt Allie was able to join us!

After the show, the kids were allowed backstage to interact with the puppets....

Alexis loved the tomato-head the best. 

A Project or Two

I've wanted to make new throw pillows for our bed for some time.  I finally sat down and made this pillow:

Also, Lexi is now well into the tooth-loss part of her life.  She lost her 3rd tooth a couple of weeks ago.  And although she doesn't believe in the tooth fairy ("it's just your parents, mom, that come in when you're in a deep sleep!"), I still wanted to make a special little pillow for her.  I found this tutorial online and attempted to make it.  Lexi loves it, which is the most important thing.

You can stick the little tooth inside the pillow's mouth.  Then the "tooth fairy" can leave the money in its place.  And wouldn't you know it?  When I went in to replace the tooth with $1, she WOKE UP!!! And SAW ME!! Boy, would the tooth fairy boss be disappointed in me!  Oh, well.  **sigh**

Snow Day

For the first time since we moved here several years ago, we had an anticipated snow day- on Tuesday they announced that school would be closed on Wednesday due to an incoming storm and the anticipation of inclement weather.  I was still skeptical, but we did end up getting a decent amount that day- for a couple of hours mid-day it was snowing at the rate of 2" per hour.  We headed out to the park in the afternoon and were quite surprised to see many many people out- as if it were the middle of summer!

There must have been at least 10 snowmen throughout the park- I took pictures of a few of them.  I particularly loved this guy who had to be at least 8 feet tall!  A little while after I took this photo, a group of teenagers dismantled him.

We made our own snowman, though not as large as the others.  We also made him a little pet dog- a tribute to Aunt Laura's Odin.  Sadly, they were both decapitated not too long after we abandoned them to play on the rocks in the snow....

We also found the remains of a fort, so we added more snow to it and built it up to be our own.  Ella found a little mound inside that she enjoyed sitting on, so we added a little more to build her a bench inside.  I had happy memories of a huge snowstorm when I was a kid and my grandfather building a big igloo for me.

We stayed out for about 2 hours- until well past sundown.  The GW Bridge through the twilight snow:

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day in our home is extra special.... because it's also Matt's birthday.  And even though I'm days (weeks?) late in posting this, we are really really really happy you were born!

The girls created a classic candy-gram (with some help from mom)

 Dear Daddy Matt,
We love you to (Reese's) PIECES and we hope your birthday is like a SYMPHONY in New YORK. We promise not to SNICKER(s) about your age if you don't tell WHOPPERS.  Our POP ROCKS!
Love, The SOUR PATCH KIDS