Yes We Live In Maine and No We Don't Eat Lobster Very Often.

This is the first lobster we have had this year! I know you are thinking are you kidding me you live in Maine you should have lobster all the time! But, I enjoy having it once and a while so it is more like a treat. This is Tut's first time seeing them so as you can see he is not all that impressed. That is our friend Pat who is up visiting from South Carolina (he used to live here) and so he of course needed to have lobster. Steve was not impressed with the crustacean so he and DJ had steak :o)

Molly Off To College

Well, our little Molly is off to college this last week :o( These are just a couple of pictures of our little going away party for her. We know that she is going to do great! Good Luck Molly!

Crazy Busy!

Sorry for the lack of blogging we have had a lot going on in our little lives! We found out in the middle of June that our tenants were moving out at the beginning of July so that threw a monkey wrench in our summer. Steve has spent the last two weeks working in the apartment and we figure one more week of labor to get it ready to rent. Paint, new floor in the bathroom, more paint. Fun, Fun, Fun! Steve has been able to get a few fun things in this year he hiked Mt. Katahdin in June and then Moose Mt. (formally Big Squaw) last weekend. So he has some good hiking and rock climbing in this summer. I'll have him post some pictures on his blog of his trips. Well, that is all for now!

Our Gardens

I thought you all might like to see a few things from our gardens! The boxes are our veggie gardens which we are growing tomatoes, green beans, and some carrots. The flowers are from our flower beds. It has been really fun to watch everything grow and bloom.

The Nephews...

Here are a few updated pictures of the boys! Colby, Ethan and Brayden. Nice looking bunch if I do say so myself! I can't believe how much they change from week to week.

Happy Birthday Continued.....

So as promised a few pictures of the party yesterday! As you can see in one picture Colby loves to help with present opening :o) Mom made the photo album that Grammy and Luke are looking at it is a album of family photos starting with Grammy's parents through the grandchildren. She loved it! Mom and Uncle Charlie did all the cooking and BBQing it was really good!

HAPPY 85TH BIRTHDAY GRAMMY!

Today we are celebrating my Mom's Mom's 85th birthday! So here is to you Grammy! I'll post pictures of the party later...off to get ready to go.

Long Time No Blog

We have been so busy that the blog has taken a back seat not that it has really been in the front seat :o) Over at Mom's right now working on a little project.....just waiting for her to get off the phone....I know she never talks on the phone :o) Things have been good just busy. We have been to a couple of movies The Hulk and Iron Man....two man flicks so Steve is going to have to enjoy some girl movies. Steve is off the climb Katahdin he is very excited! So I will post pictures when he returns next week. I also have some updated pictures of the boys that I will post when I am on my home computer. 

The Orono Bog Walk

These are some of the pictures we took this morning on the Orono Bog Walk. It was a perfect
morning to go with a light cloud cover and a little bit of rain. We are so lucky to have such an
amazing place to visit so close! I would encourage everyone to take a walk at the bog at least
once. You can visit their website Orono Bog Walk. They list out what plants you will see and when the pitcher plants are really neat! Plus, they do educational walks as well.

The Fun of Home Improvement

Let me start by saying that I hope I never I mean NEVER have to pull down horse hair plaster again. That has got to be the worst job I have ever done and we only pulled down two walls! Once that was done the rest has be a little easier. The boys (Steve & his partner in crime Scott) put up some new drywall and Mom and I worked on steaming off the wallpaper. As you can see from the pictures this has so far gone quite well. I'll post more pictures when we get to the woodwork and the painting. It is going to look really nice! In other project news we are having Mardens put in a new kitchen floor in the downstairs apartment and then when we have our apartment back in some order we are having new carpet put in our tv room. That will be great! But really do you want a project on each floor!

Long Time No Post

I realized I hadn't posted in some time! Things have been busy, busy, busy. We have been getting ready for our spring projects....this weekend is the back bedroom. We are taking down two walls of horsehair plaster and putting up drywall. So that should make a fun mess :o) I'll try to post some pictures of the project. Then we move outside to work on our front porch to replace some parts of that. We are also going to try a small garden this year not real big but a few things...trying to save were we can. Ok, well off to work so I'll try to post some pictures later.

Happy Easter!

It was a long Easter day but a wonderful one! Started at 5am getting up and ready for our sunrise service followed by a baptism (six people!) and then followed by Easter breakfast at church. Now this leaves us with an hour until the regular service starts so no point in going home; we wait it out. Steve practices the music (he had to use his friends Scott's guitar because his needed some work) so I go for another cup of coffee. Church starts at 9am....followed at about 9:10am with Steve breaking a string on Scott's guitar....better hope someone has one in the closet! Gary to the rescue with his Ovation (nice guitar but not good on any guy with any kind of stomach as Steve says," bowl against bowl is not good"). Music then resumes without further interruption.

After church we of course have to visit...then home to cook my very first Easter ham! Mind you it is going to just be Steve, Liz and I (Brayden doesn't really count in the meal prep) so I got a 8lb ham! So we had enough food for about 10 people. I also decided to try a new recipe :o) which I must say turned out wonderful! We also tried a new mashed potato recipe which was amazing! I have included before and after pictures of the ham. It had a orange marmalade glaze w/orange slices on it....Thank you Martha Stewart. The rest of the day was spent enjoying Brayden. It was so fun to have him all to myself! I've included a picture of him as well.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Yes, we are still alive

I must say between, snow, rain, snow, rain, snow, and rain it feels like the month of March has been already too long! But, the good news is in like a lion out like a lamb! So let's get you caught up on life.

Things have been quite busy as we have had a college student living with us over his spring break and then sent him to snow camp with the youth group and the got the youth leaders dog to watch. This was followed by me taking another dive down the stairs (thinking I might have broken by tail bone). So as I sit here typing I am icing my backside.

Good news is we got a Wii! How fun is that! We took it over to mom and dad's and played...Grammy even tried! We had a great time!

Well, all for now.

Sick, Sick, Sick

Luke, Liz and I have all gotten sick at the same time. Pretty good when we don't even live in the same house! Luke called me tonight to wish me a happy birthday which also included a conversation with Colby. He was quite concerned that I had a cold and wanted to know when I thought I might be better :o) He also wanted to know if I had seen the doctor. How sweet.
We have also been getting more snow! Had seven inches last night and more coming Friday... man I beginning to think that we need to move to a warmer climate. Well, my eyes are starting to close so I'm going to sign off......

The Eclipse

So last night it was really cold and Steve and I decided that we would put our camera to good use and take some pictures of the eclipse. So after music practice we headed to the local golf course....about the only place you don't get blinded by city lights to try our hand at taking some pictures. Well, let me just tell you I had not really thought this out very well. I had just thrown on my Crocs and some wool socks with a thin fleece and a pair of Wristies. You would think after living in Maine my whole life I would know how to dress on a cold clear night. Anyway, we get to the golf course and I send my brave husband out into the snow to set up the tripod and the camera (while I wait in the warm car for him to finish). Then I trudge out to help. Of course this involves my feet going into the snowbank and filling my Crocs with snow....Thank goodness for LL Bean wool socks and the scarf (thanks Bess) that I had left in my backseat....and Steves big mittens that he had left in the car. We have never done this before so it was experiment time with our digital.....not the best thing to do when it is 18 degrees out I might add. We did end up getting a few good shots but the really amazing thing is that it was so still and beautiful to just stand there and enjoy Gods amazing creation. The stars were beautiful and the moon was breathtaking. I am so thankful that we are able to enjoy these things and that we had a warm car to jump right back into to warm up! I have included a couple pictures that we got last night. They are the last few that we took. Also, good to note that when it is 18 degrees out and you don't know what you are doing with your camera you should maybe take the book with you and read it in the warm car first thus maybe a few more good pictures.....we will try again in 2010.

Go Patriots!

It is time for our annual Superbowl party! We have about 20 people coming over
to watch the big game! The great part is the Pats are playing so that makes it just
that much more fun! I'll post some pictures of the group maybe even during the game.

Luke has a new look!

So he told his kids in his math class that
if anyone aced the final they could shave his
head. So as you can see one of them did! I think
it is a nice look.
Except maybe he could have maybe smiled.... :o)
My understanding is this look only lasted a day.
Still waiting to hear what Colby thought.

Ethan he has gotten so big!

How cute is he! He is getting so big! This smile was soon followed by crying but we will take what we can get. Thanks for the nice picture Uncle Steve!

Marriage Retreat

Steve and I just got back from a weekend at a marriage retreat. We had a wonderful time. This is the third year that we have gone. Each year we have such a great time. We get to spend time with each other and with our friends. It is just a small group of about 12 couples. During our time together we have group sessions, alone time, date night and of course free time. Usually during free time the girls hit some shops and the boys hang out and play w/their laptops and go to the music store, which is right in front of the inn. So good time had by all.

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Our Housesitting Trip...Yes more Snow

We stayed out at my aunt and uncles for a few days to house/dog/cat sit. It turned into quite an adventure :o) between two storms of over 8 inches each of snow we again spent a lot of time working out in the snow. Poor Steve got the plow truck stuck in the ditch which became quite a project to get out and then a drive into town to snowblow out our driveway during the first storm and then we got hit w/the second storm so we got up early and plowed again at least enough to get out from the hill and then back into town to get our house cleaned out. Thankfully school was cancelled so Steve had plenty of time to work on the driveway which was good because he got my car stuck. I've included some pictures of our snowy trip.

SNOW,SNOW,SNOW AND MORE SNOW!

I think we have gotten 200 inches of snow, well more like 40 plus inches in the month of December. So we have plowed, shoveled and used the snowblower to clear this mess. I must say that when it is snowing it is very pretty it is like living in Narnia. I think Steve will be going to school until August if this continues.