High Meadow

We've had a hectic start to the school year........ the transition always seems abrupt, but this year has been especially hard.  It feels a little like going from the "frying pan into the freezer" after having spent 24/7 with the kids this summer.  Fortunately, the kids have taken to their new day care situation amazingly well.  Cally loves Tammy and all the kids.  She tells John to "hurry up" in the morning because she can't wait to get there.  And Hazen is adored by all-- he's sort of like the mayor there!

Unfortunately, on Hazen's third day with Tammy, he got a fever.  It being my first day with the students, I couldn't leave school, so I came to appreciate even more the flexibility that John has with his job.  Because the next day, he also had to stay home.


We had plans to go to Lake Mooselookmeguntuk in Maine again for Labor Day this year.  And we were even able to motivate the Ganz Clan.  We spent much of Friday getting our camping gear organized and packing.  We were optimistic that Hazen's fever was just a fluke.......... Unfortunately, Hazen woke up in the middle of the night spiking a fever of 104.7 degrees.  After consulting with Nurse Ganzenmuller who happened to be in the ER, he advised that we come in.  We called Uncle Scotty to see if he'd come over and stay with Cally while we went to the ER.  He and Cynthia were over in minutes, but upon consulting with our Doctor (and the fever dropped a bit with tylernol), it was decided to go into the doctors office at 7am instead.  At least we know that Scott and Cynthia are very dedicated Godparents.

Even when he's down, he looks pretty cute!

Hazen improved by morning, but he did have an ear infection, so the doctor put him on some antibiotics.  She didn't really have a strong opinion about whether we should go camping in Maine, but thought we should wait until mid-day to leave.  After a night short of sleep and our worries about being so remote, we decided to stay put.  The only problem was that we had offered to let John's sister Lynn stay at our house with her in-laws who were visiting from Ireland.  We didn't want to have to reneg on our offer and were fortunate to not have to because Uncle Scotty offered to let us stay at High Meadow.

High Meadow is a very special place for us.  It's the place we called home for 5 months when our home was being renovated.  It's the place we came home to with our beautiful new daughter.  It's the place where I learned to be a mother.  We've been fortunate to visit for barbeque's, swims, parties, and hikes over the past three years since we lived there.  but we've never had the opprotunity to stay there again.  Scott's offer was incredibly generous.
 

We ended up inviting the Ganz Clan and a few other families to join us for an impromptu "staycation" camp out.  Five families (11 children) played "jump or dive" in the pond, played in a tree house, kicked the soccer ball, boated around the pond, and ate incredibly well before camping out in the cabin and on the property. 

 

 


Being back at High Meadow brought back so many memories of being pregnant with Cally and how clueless I was about how my life was going to change.  I had no idea what an amazing experience being a parent would be.  What I mean is that I knew that I'd like having kids, but I had no idea just how much my life would change for the better.  And it just keeps getting better everyday!  Words escape my ability to explain just why I love being a parent so much, but being at High Meadow again made me feel it in a way that felt so powerful.  Especially when I see how much fun my family has when we are there.