Why Don't He Write?

Another 2 months has passed me by and I have had a huge case of writer's block!  It's not that funny things haven't happened to me.  Heck, even a lot of boring things happened to me.  It's just that I can't seem to remember to take pictures to prove it and I can't seem to muster up the energy to get anything done about the blog.  It might be because I've started my second semester of my Post Master's and just feel overwhelmed trying to think about anything else.  It might also be the stress I feel because my home renovations aren't even close to being done.  Or it might be some mild depression about going back to my regular life once my extended family left me in July.  Whatever the reason, I guess let me step back and give you the highlights of the 2 months you've missed.

After my sister Briana and her family left us, we made good use of the rest of the summer!  We definitely got more beach time (though not as much as I wanted) and checked out a new beach (to us) at Sachuest point.  It was lovely, just like every other Rhode Island beach, and Jared looked particularly handsome with the chin pubes he had been growing:

Let's next turn our attention to my finest achievement of the year which happened at the beginning of August.  I finally got my fence replaced!  It made me feel about 10% less trashy, and that my friends, is worth its weight in gold.  Here's a pic of how high the pile to the dump was on the back of the truck:

Jared managed to get it all on board in one trip!  It cost me about a hundred bucks to dump it, but on the bright side, a nice man who saw I was alone and dumping gloveless, felt sorry for me and gave me a new pair of nice work gloves.  Bonus!  And here's part of the new beauty fence herself:

Remember that the house there off to the left is Maria's cousin's place.  Her husband was so glad when that new fence went up, but I like to believe he was a little sad that he can't tromp through my backyard to visit his friend anymore.  I ended up taking him some cookies because he tapped up a few boards over some gaps from his side, so my quest to make him my friend has begun I guess.  However, my feelings about Maria remain unchanged.  Sorry Maria.  You brought this misery upon yourself!

August finished out with a camping trip right before school started at the end of the month.  This year, we went camping at Pawtuckaway Lake in New Hampshire and had the time of our lives.  We played on the lake every day, paddled the canoe around, bought a huge flamingo floaty and dragged it behind the canoe with the kids on top.  We paddled to the islands in the lake and jumped off a giant rock for hours that that kids named "Jerry the jumping rock."  We even jumped off "Jerry" onto the flamingo and laughed our heads off.  We paddled the canoe to the lake store and parked the canoe in the "boat corral" whenever we needed more ice or something else we forgot.  It was an absolutely perfect week, but I don't have a waterproof phone case, so I have very little proof of my delightful outing.  You might have to make do with a picture of the frog Bubba caught, me acting like a pig eating marshmallows, and Jared fishing instead.

  

Trust me.  It was such a great trip.  We are going back next year and it might just overtake Bear Lake and Warm River as my favorite place to cop a squat...

School started shortly thereafter and I only managed to get a picture of Bubba on the first day of school.  

I was on call that day and missed all of it unfortunately.  The older girls took a picture of themselves for me so as not to break my tradition:

Sadly, their choice of lighting was less than perfect and I felt damn guilty for not asking for that day off so that I could send them out like I normally do.  I did feel badly about shirking my mom duties, but my bigger crime was forgetting to ask for the day off so that Jared and I could drop off the kids and go alone to Six Flags.  Judge me all you like.  You have five kids and see if you don't want to escape the creeps sometimes too...

That my friends catches me up to Labor Day weekend.  I actually had the weekend off and it was glorious.  It started with a sweet gift from my dad in the mail:

Yes that is exactly what it looks like.  The empty Dunkin Donuts bag from the donuts he bought during his visit out to see me in July.  I cannot explain that man in the few sentences I have left.  Just realize that I have known him for 44 years and nothing he does surprises me...  Including getting an empty Dunkin Donuts bag in the mail from him...

On Sunday, we explored Bash Bish Falls and had a lovely drive through a part of Massachusetts we haven't seen since Jared and the kids moved to the Ocean State:

I know it's no Idaho waterfall, but we had fun nonetheless!  We rounded out the weekend with a trip to Battleship Cove in Fall River, Mass on labor day itself and had a fantastic time!  

After all the exploring we did, we ate at a clam shack one last time before the end of the season, and enjoyed the whisperings of the fall weather that has arrived to Rhode Island.  I feel lucky to live in such a great state with so much going on all the time.  I am constantly amazed at how much traveling, eating, and playing we have done since moving, and I am grateful for the new quality of life I found once we made the trek to the East.  

I feel a little bummed about being back on call today after all the fun adventures I just shared with everyone.  In fact, someone painted a nut inside the hospital elevator that perfectly sums up my day today:

Don't get too worried for me though.  My call shift ends in about 12 hours and then I begin our annual "Apple Cider Donut Adventure."  The "adventure" consists of me driving to a new cider house every weekend to try out their cider and/or cider donuts and then critiquing them in order of deliciousness.  Jaswell's Farm is the spot to beat from last year, so everyone better be on their best game this year!  Huh.  I guess I didn't have writer's block after all.  Aren't you lucky?