November 2013

November has come and gone. I had to visit my Dropbox picture folder to remember all that we did during this month. It was busy, but with mostly routine activities. We harvested the rest of the pumpkins from our garden, baked bread, went Shopping, reorganized the office, went Fishing, and went to two Vaulting Lessons. I went out on a limb and colored my hair with a Natural Henna product. I was not thrilled with the results, but I have to remind myself, it could have been worse.  Thank Abba for "purple" shampoo! My color is now tolerable (see pics below!).

 
One day we went out walking the dogs in the woods and came across a curious “circle” on the trail. I surmised that it must have been a bear that did it. I have seen bears do this on video before and I could not fathom what else was big enough or fluffy enough to make such an indention on the leaf bed of the forest floor. We made a hasty retreat out of the forest this day, but curiosity got the best of me and I ventured back out to look for “signs of a bear.” I didn’t really find anything, but as it happens, Jason was working from home this day and had been upstairs on a conference call. My trip to the woods was after evening chores so by now Jason was off of work. He asked my daughter where I was and she said, “oh she’s looking for a bear in the woods.” This is what I told her when I left the house to do chores. I said, “when I’m done doing chores I’m going to walk out and take a picture of the “bear circle” in the woods.”

So now I am in the forest, and a little freaked out, the spot that was stirred up on the forest floor now had some new leaves dropped on it and was a little more difficult to make out, but I could still see it. So I decided I had seen enough and headed back. Little did I know that my husband was lying in wait for my return. He heard me coming back up the trail and crouched slightly near a huge pile of wood and brambles. As I rounded the trail he jumped out and GROWLED!! RAAWWWRRR! I freaked out, and even my valiant dogs were freaked and dispersed, they didn’t run but kind of flaked out and made a circle around the growling person, my husband!! Grrrr, I ran after him and said, that’s NOT NICE! He giggled incessantly as I regained my composure. This was IT, this means… war! Hahaha

Amidst the comings and goings of the next few weeks, there were intermittent moments of “getting each other back.” One night was an accident, I came upstairs after we had buttoned up downstairs and I had a glass full of water in my hand, and my phone in the other hand. All the lights were off and I suspected that my husband was waiting to spring out and scare me since all the lights were off (at least it looked that way to me). I was struggling with one hand to turn on our bedroom light, you have to reach up and twist a knob to turn it on, and what was funny was that as I reached and struggled to get the light my husband was, at the same time… in the dark, was reaching for the light as he was standing on the opposite side of the light in the doorway to the bathroom. We grazed each other’s hands and I actually could see Jason vaguely but being that he had JUST turned out the bathroom light, his eyes were not yet adjusted to the dark as mine were so when he touched my hand he freaked! Haha! Score 1 for Maritza!!

Jason 1 :: Maritza 1

Although I kind of felt that this one didn’t count because it was not ‘planned’ I was now invigorated with the thought of getting him “for real” another time. So a few nights later when we headed upstairs, while Jason went in the bathroom to brush his teeth I went over to my side of the bed and after changing I laid on the ground next to the bed hoping to resemble a fallen pile of clothes. After Jason exited the bathroom he glanced around and did not see me. He checked the usual places and went to the closet (right near my hiding spot) and as he closed the door to the closet I jumped up and grabbed his leg yelling “RAWWWRR” haha! Another score for me!

Jason 1 :: Maritza 2

For Thanksgiving we got to go visit some of our friends that were formerly our neighbors in Louisiana. They live in Gloucester, so it was a bit of a drive for us, but well worth it. We brought Corn Bread, Homemade Cranberry Sauce and one other thing that is slipping my mind right now (that might have been all). When we arrived the guys had to go run an errand, and the Grandparents were finishing up some, preparing some dishes and the kids were climbing the walls, so as per their annual tradition my friend Sandy and I took the kiddos for a walk in the forest. It was CCCOOOLLLLDDD, very COLD!! So the kids did not last long. This was mine and my daughter’s first time joining, but my friend’s family does this every year and usually more family members join, but due to circumstances it was just “us.” Upon leaving we saw a cute little Flicker woodpecker ascending and descending a tree. I love how they maneuver by hopping effortlessly up and down on the tree trunk. It always makes me giggle a little. The kids got to see him and they enjoyed him too. So then we headed back to Sandy’s to eat Thanksgiving dinner.  Dinner was DELICIOUS! There wasn’t a whole lotta talkin’ cause there was a lot of munching. Everyone seemed to enjoy the dishes and that Cranberry Sauce was amazing (thanks Doug M. for the recipe!!).  I had enough Cranberry Sauce left over and froze it so we can enjoy it a little longer.  After cleaning up the feast, we were treated to a play by the kids, it was super cute! I loved the thoughtful costumes and the kids did very well! After the play, we visited for a bit and then the Kelley family packed up and headed back to Southbridge. What a great day!

The following week I found we were low on milk. We purchase our milk from a local farm, I call them up the day before and place my order and it is ready by 9AM the following morning. So the next day the milk was ready but I wasn’t ready in the morning so I left later in the day. I shoved off to pick up the milk pretty close to sunset. I got the milk and stored it in ice bags and then went over to the grocery store. Since Jason was home, my daughter decided she would stay and chit chat with her cousins on the internet, they play games together and such so I went alone. Jason had some work items to finish up. After my trip to the store, I headed home and pulled up to the gate, by now it was dark. I had a feeling I was being watched, but I shook it off because to be honest I always feel like something crazy like a bear or moose might come tearing out of the forest area by our “moat” out front. So I put on my braveness and went out into the darkness to open the gate. I keep telling Jason that we need to install an electric gate opener and some lights down by the gate and he tells me, “I know, I know.” So in the meantime I deal with my wild imagination of bears and moose and such, haha. So I pulled through the now open gate and climb back out of the truck to close and chain the gate. As I round the corner of the bumper I spy a shadow near the opposite flank of the truck and it startles me! It is MY HUSBAND! “RAAWWRRR!!” he says. I simulate my Krav Maga response (because I knew it was him) to his crazy idea of startling me at the gate! This takes the cake! Alright he is the winner! Although by now I am furious that he would scare me like he was a burglar, he actually had a ski mask and all. I’m somewhat used to this sort of thing as I had to deal with it from one of my brothers when I was growing up. He had a ninja suit and would dress up and stuff like this. So our score is even now and I say, that’s enough, I’m all set, we’re even. I later found out that Jason had waited outside 45 minutes for the opportunity to “get me good!” He says it was FaH-ReeZ-InG outside!

Jason 2 :: Maritza 2

By now, my daughter was onboard with all our giggling and stories of scaring each other and such so she didn’t get the memo of us stopping the scaring and so she employed some of our tactics against us. She jumped out and scared us a couple of times and we were genuinely startled, haha. So finally, we all had a sit down and said, ok enough is enough we are ALL going to stop scaring each other. It isn’t good to instill fear in this way into each other, and it was all getting out of hand. So we all agreed to stop scaring each other. So another day, Jason couldn’t resist and hid in the shadows of my daughter’s room as we were preparing to tuck her in bed. I was the last one to come in because I was the last one brushing my teeth, I came in and found “no one” in my daughter’s room and suddenly out of the shadows, Jason reached out and grabbed me. I say “hey you aren’t supposed to scare people.” He says, “Oh, I wasn’t scaring you, I was surprising you.” Haha! So we had to then make the ruling that we also could not “surprise” each other. It’s hard to resist when the opportunity presents itself, haha! That was the end of that.

The last week in November we also got a light dusting of snow! More was forecasted the 1^st week in December….

November wrapped up without incident, what a pleasant month to remember.