Heat and Humidity

Okay, the temperature at 9 pm is 80, the humidity is 81%, the dewpoint is 72. Hair never dries, sweat never dries, A/C can't keep up.

We had a great time at Island Beach State Park today--at the shore there is always a breeze, the temp is cooler and the water feels great. The Parkway was incredibly crowded with traffic, but we go by county roads and traffic wasn't bad at all. The only bad part was coming back home to the heat. Ugh.

Thursday

Today Tom and I have an intake meeting at Children's Center of Monmouth County, in Neptune. Jim is having a tooth extracted next Monday. Of course he has other cavities, one in a permanent tooth, and his permanent teeth need sealants...to the tune of $1700. We'll do the extraction and permanent teeth, and forego the other 4 or 5 cavities for now...

Later: the meeting at the school went well. Tom got upset at the end, because when he spent a little time with one of the teachers doing some worksheets to assess his academic status, the work was "too easy" for him.

Dentist, anyone?

For the last two days Jimmy has been complaining of a toothache.  Last night it hurt so bad he was crying intermittently during the night, and couldn't sleep.  He's finally sleeping now at 8:30 while I try to find a local dentist.  Of course, nobody out here is open for ANYTHING before 9 am, so I have a list of numbers and need to wait until they get in.  Stevie woke up bright and early at 6:30, because he fell asleep at 6:00 last night, the beach having exhausted him.

We went to Island Beach State Park yesterday and had a lot of fun.  The surf was dangerous so swimming was prohibited, but they let people go in a little ways.  The boys body surfed for 2 hours.  Tom just loves the feeling of the ocean pushing him around, and I think he would do that all day long.  We got a year pass for all the state parks for $50--a bargain, since one weekend entry is $10 per car.  This part is a long, skinny barrier island, and very nice.  Never gets TOO crowded, as they stop letting people in at a certain point.  You drive across a very long bridge over Barnegat Bay to get to it.  The kids were hoping to see the drawbridge go up, but we didn't wait around for that.  It was almost empty, as it was 73 and very windy.  We Minnesotans don't mind getting wet in that weather!  Some people there were dressed like late fall--sweatshirts, windbreakers, hoods up, etc.

This weekend

"The Shore"
We went to "the shore" yesterday, though it was cloudy, humid and in the 70s.  We checked out a possible school for Tom in Neptune, then went to a beach around there.  We found a free public one.  Too cold for most people to swim, but our big boys started out wading and ended up body surfing, in their clothes!  The littles got their legs wet and built a sand castle.  All enjoyed the gulls and shells.  We will probably go back today, to that or a different beach.

Checked out housing prices in Neptune, Asbury Park and that area.  (Anyone want to invest in some NJ shore property?  Sell it to us on a CD??)  Asbury Park is run down, for no apparent reason, with very cheap housing right by the shore.  On either side are much more "ritzy" towns.  Weird.  Housing around Neptune is not too bad, if you don't need to walk to the shore.  The school there Tom may attend goes through high school.


3 kids are up this am, while Papa and Tom sleep; those two would sleep as long as possible every single day.  Kids are cuddly in the am.



House in Neptune, 11 blocks to beach

hot hot hot

It is 90 and super humid here.  We are all kind of grumbly and stir crazy from the heat.  Too hot to do anything but sweat all day long (the one daytime a/c can't keep up).  We don't have a pool to go to, it is way too hot to play outside.  We plan to go to the shore on Sunday (papa has to do something for work at the airport Sat. afternoon), and it will be nice there, but that is a ways away yet...

so I got the littles to make a Lego zoo.

more pics from the weekend

Here is bad boy Jim--we did not know he was doing this until we saw the picture Antonia took!

Here are Bug and David at breakfast Sunday
 

Here is a grumbly Tom, hot and bored:

 

We miss MN

Today as we were driving to the grocery store (Rosie, Bug and Karen), Rosie started asking when we could go to Grandma Mary's house.  I said maybe Christmas, but that we would see Grandma in a month on our vacation.  She cried for a while, saying she wanted to go to Grandma's house.  Then, an hour or so later on our way home, Bug asked where we were going.  I said home, to Grandma Vera's house. He said, "No, I want to go to ours house."  I said our house was Grandma Vera's house now.  He cried and got upset, insisting he wanted to go home to OURS house.  And these two have been fine all along---guess they just thought this was an extended vacation!  So you are missed, although we are doing well.

today

 
 

 

Grandma Mary Sent a Book!

(This blog was her idea, too!)  She sent Antonia 10 Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed, and she immediately started reading it to Steve.  (The boys took the Nat'l Geographic upstairs for later.)

Aunt Cathy and Baby David are here!

They got in last night, late, and we woke up to see them.  David is toddling around cute as can be, and has an infectious giggle.  Stevie, Antonia and Jim were jockeying to sit close to him at breakfast.  We went to the playground, where Antonia casually boosted him up to reach a spinning toy.

antonia's world

Antonia loves the camera. She took these pics yesterday and today. They give a glimpse of our life here.

Tom and Jim and hedgie

Here is Hedgie, the star (so says her self-proclaimed dad, Jimmy):
And here are Jim and Tom, taken moments ago:

Of course now, two minutes later, they are fighting and driving me nuts.

This morning

Here is Bug
and here is Antonia this morning

trying some pictures

I need to see how to get pics up here. This is Tom with the pet rat from his school last year. He hopes his new school, wherever it ends up being, will have good pets.

Hello!

We had a slow start this am, but an electrician came to see about putting in a new circuit here in grandma's house. Our a/c, coffee pot, computers, etc. are overloading. He will put the basement dehumidifier and sump pump on a separate circuit, which should solve the problem. He grew up in a house of this identical model, around the corner, so he knows the design well. (This 1950s development has just a few house styles, and only 2 in this particular section.)

Jim and Antonia were playing lullabies for the baby Scorchio neopet toy, but trying to hide it from me--think Jim was embarrassed about the game. Tom is on neopets.com and Bug is supervising everyone. It is finally nice out--not humid for the first time in a week, and no rain. Aunt Cathy and cousin David, 1, are coming tonight, so the kids are ecxited about that. They made pictures last night for David and for the soldier we "adopted" (which I need to mail).

Already had an order this am for wedding post-its, so that was a good way to start the day. Now I need to create Jon's business cards. His secretary is not doing anything not in her particular job description, in an effort to get a higher pay grade or something, so nobody seems able to do it for him. We are going to the library after lunch, to get the kids out of the house and away from the electronics. More later...

Setting this up

Just setting this up to help keep in touch with friends and family, esp. those in MN we just left behind. We'll see how it goes.