Time flies

I can not believe that it has been over a month since my last entry! My, my. Hope no one was on pins and needles waiting for my next one. September has been a blur for me me and October is already looking to be the same. I keep thinking about when I was a kid and how I couldn't wait for Christmas to come and it would take FOREVER. How I wished to be older, could wait to get out of school, or get married, or have kids. Then could wait for them to walk, be potty trained, go to school, graduate, blah, blah, blah. "Where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing." Time flies as we blink our eyes and before we know it we've been married 30 years and our kids are grown and the days fly by since our last blog entry!!!

I don't even have a good reason for where the month went. Between working, church and working on the house, the month was nibbled away. There are physical signs of progress, though. The floors are finished in the house and some painting has begun. Visitors have visited. We had an open house/house blessing. Windows were ordered (work to start next week). I guess we have been pretty busy! But what bugs me is that as I look over the past month, we didn't make time for much fun. We'll have to work on that.

"Truckin"

I am now a trucker!! Never thought I'd be able to add that to my list of accomplishments! Last week I made a trip down to Virginia, again, to be with family as we put closure to my Mom's passing. We sold her house (by the grace of God it sold quickly) and we had to pick up the items that we each were going to get. My mom always took people to Crabbtree Falls when they came to visit but she never made it to the top. We were determined we would carry her to the top. Friday morning we packed lunches and drove to the park. We left George, the dog, home cuz he doesn't like crowds (or even family members he doesn't know well for that matter) Besides we had enough to handle what with 7 (mature)adults... 6 because no one considers Jim (my brother) mature (I love you, Jim!) 4 - 20somethings, 2 collegians, and 1 flity high-schooler AND 1 beautiful baby...(guess who that was!) The hike was beautiful and the Falls were gorgeous! The path wound up the mountain back and forth giving glimpses of the Falls to keep you going higher. Finally, we reached the top, which opened up to expose a breathtaking view. We said goodbye to Mom, sang "Delta Dawn" ,both the corrected way and also to the tune of "She'll be coming around the Mountain" which is how Mom insisted it really went, laughed and cried and then headed back down. It was a good day. I hope Mom likes the view. I wonder what My kids will remember when I'm gone?

So back to the truck. My Bro rented a 22' truck to bring all our "stuff" back home. Only thing is, that his home is in NY and mine in ME. So he and I jumped in the truck on Sunday morning at "O dark:30AM and headed for NY 91/2 hours later we were there. In NY.... I still had to drive that beast back to Maine!!! But I have a gracious God who loves me and was not willing to see me fail. The weather was good, the traffic was light and the truck drove like a charm! Good thing I didn't have to backup! And I made it home in 8 hours! The sun was still shining! (but I hope I don't have to do it again for a very long time)

SEE!

See what I mean! I have just spent almost 3 hours on this computer! It time for bed! Goodnight

Life... Catch me if you can!

Life has a way of getting away from us. Days fly by. We get lost for hours on the Internet "surfing". We sit and watch TV for hours and comment about how "there is nothing on". One minute our children are babies and the next minute we are grandparents! That is exactly what happened to us just one month ago. Meet our first grandson, Ethan. Isn't he the cutest thing you ever saw! (and the smartest too). On June 2ND we jumped in the car and drove 14hrs (in 12!) to be there when he was born. (missed it by "that much") We got there in time to hold him when he was just a few hours old! He was due on May 20th and that put some scheduling challenges in the works for us. You see, we were closing on our house here in Maine on the 14th and had to be out of the rental house by the 1st of June. The new house needed some painting done before we moved in and we were feverishly working to complete it before the blessed event. Fortunately for us (but not his mother) he was very content where he was. We stayed for a week and it was so hard to leave. But our friends here in Maine were holding the motorcycle, VW bug and the dog for ransom so that we would come back! So we packed up and headed back home. Home. Isn't that a great word. Who would think a 4 letter word could invoke such warm fuzzies. It was so good to get back home. Finally I felt like life might slow down and I might catch my breath. And maybe, just maybe I might have a little normality back. NAH! oh, well.

Riding "Sew Wutt"

Yesterday, being such a beautiful day, we took the Bug for a ride. With the top down. Juliette (the dog) loves to ride in the car, so we said, "Come on girl, let's go for a ride!" and of course she jumps right in! So off we go... the sun shining, my hair whipping, and Juliette sniffing the air. As we continue on our ride, I notice that Juliette is not sniffing quite so much. In fact she has her head down and eyes sulking as if to say, "I don't like this anymore... I want to go home." I thought that maybe it was too much wind and it was bothering her ears. We happen to have one of those headband/ear-warmers in the car so I slid it on her head and covered her ears. It seemed to work (although she looked like a Russian grandmother!). Hopefully as the weather gets warmer she will enjoy it more.

I need help

Now I know some of you will respond to this statement with "YOU SURE DO!" But that's not the help I'm looking for... at least not today. (ask me again at the end of the summer!)
I need blogging help. How do I get a list of other blogging friends on my site? I just can't figure it out. I need "Blogging for Dummies". Many of you have Great sites and I would like to easily link to them.

The Name

Yesterday was the last day I had on my temporary tag for the BUG. So I headed to the DMV to wait in line for what seemed like HOURS. Actually, I only waited about 25minutes but when you don't have anything to do but wait, 25minutes is forever! I was #64 and they had just called #50. Finally it was my turn. I handed her all my papers and after she reviewed them she asked the question I was dreading. "Do you want Custom - Vanity plates?" For 20 days I have been wrestling over what to put on these plates. I felt as though I was naming a child. This was an important decision! She hands me a form to fill out. It allows me to give 3 choices. With trepidation I wrote down my 1st, 2nd & 3rd choice and handed it back. Choice 1 was taken...bummer. Choice 2 was not allowed... bummer. Choice 3 was open... but I really didn't want that one! She went back to choice 1 and said "How about adding another "T". So... my new Maine tag for my Bug is "SEW WUTT". It has nothing to do with the car but is one of my passions.

Biking in the Rain STINKS!!!

Today was a bad day. It should have been a good one. A long ride on the back of my honey's motorcycle is something I truly enjoy. But... I confess, I am a "fair weather" rider. I like the sun to shine, the road to be smooth and the temp to be warm. Today this was not the case. And on a normal case I would have declined the ride. But today was the "Run for the Son" CMA ride.
And so I sucked it up, "Put my big girl panties on " (as they say now... who started that anyway?), and got on. Big mistake! It started out OK but it was overcast and chilly (strike 1).There were 9 of us on the ride, 2 cycles and 3 trikes. The road started out smooth but as we continued they got rougher and bumpier (strike 2).
At 1pm all CMA riders across the country stop the ride to pray. It is an awesome thought to think of christian bikers all over the country praying at the same time. (That was cool!) We continued on and stopped to get a bite to eat at a Seafood restaurant. We were all pretty hungry and the food was great (as well as the company!) When we came out of the restaurant it was RAINING! (AGH!! Strike 3). We still had at least an hour left to ride home. Now we have been home 4hrs and I am still COLD!!!
Now how do I end this on a good note? Hot coffee, a warm house and a movie are good!
Good night!

HERE SHE IS !!!

Well, here is my "baby". Isn't she cute! I just love boppin around town in it. As the weather warms up it will be more and more fun. Dave is working on "tweeking" the engine so it will run like a charm. (I think he's gonna have as much fun with it as I will!) I have one dilemma though. I must get my tags next week and I figure if have a neat car you should have neat tags. I just can't seem to think of anything neat. Whata ya think?

Tomorrow I fly to VA for Faith's baby shower. I'm really excited. I find it hard to believe that in a month I'll be a grandmother. WOW! It is a strange concept to think that the child you gave birth to is now about to experience that same awesome transition in life. From self focused and independent to being depended-on and nuturing. I know she'll be a great mom. I hope I'll be a great YaYa. (that's Greek for grandmother!)

I am Soooo Bugged

I so love this car!!! When I either figure out how to get the pictures off my phone OR take some good ones on my camera, I'll be able to show you why.

Skiing ?

Well, today I was going to blog all about the wonderful skiing trip Dave took me on yesterday. I was going to tell you all how fantastic the weather was and how we skied all afternoon and that the slops were prefect. I was going to say what a wonderful birthday gift it was (since my birthday is this Saturday) (That's a hint to my kids if they are reading this to remember to call your mother on her birthday!!!) I was going to blog all that.
BUT I'm not. Why?... you ask? Because although he TOLD me he was taking me skiing, he didn't. AHHH! I can hear you all gasp! How terrible!
Wait, wait. Let me finish. We put the skis in the car and headed out. We had our hats, jackets, gloves, long johns,etc. We had checked the slops on the web. As we headed down the road, I realized we passed the road we take to get to the slopes. I asked, "Aren't going to take RT17?" Dave responded with, "Nope. I thought I'd take RT1" I thought to myself, " Rt1 goes south" and I looked at him and said, "We aren't going skiing are we?" He just smirked.
3 and 1/2 hours later I found myself in New Hampshire at a stranger's driveway.
Now, many of you know that for as long as I can remember I have always wanted an old Volkswagen convertible beetle. Somewhere between a 1968 and 1972 to be exact. I really have no idea why I just have. Anyway, although I had always hope to get one for that "big" birthday, whenever I would search the web, most of them were in California and restored to $$mint condition. California was just too far to go and cost, well, that was an issue too. If they weren't in CA, they were ready for the junkyard! So it was just a dream. Well, this birthday is the "big" one and Dave, to my surprise, FOUND one! One that wasn't a basket case and wasn't restored to $$$ mint condition, either. So I have to say, God is so cool! Only HE could have put a 1968 Volkswagen Convertible bug within driving distance of MAINE and make it affordable. Isn't that amazing! The car is in pretty good shape and driveable! It's yellow with black interior and top. I could not believe my eyes!
So although Dave didn't take me skiing, he gave me the best present ever!

Holy Cow! I'm a blogger!!

I didn't think I'd do it but here I am. Blogging. What a word... blogging. I don't think it was peer pressure, well maybe. Everyone's doing it. I felt left out. So... here I am. Look out!