Ramblings

It's been a while, eh? Let's see...what's been going on?

Nate and I celebrated our 4th anniversary on the 14th. We went to Maine, as usual, and went shopping in Kittery and Freeport. We even did some yard saling on Friday! We didn't spend a whole lot of money, just enjoyed being together and browsing. I'm definitely lucky that my husband enjoys shopping with me!

Um, what else...

The power was out for a while last night. We had to listen to the Red Sox game on Nate's wind up radio instead of watch it on TV. Poor pitiful us. Actually, it was super annoying to come home from a long day at work to no power. Grrr.

So, I'm sure you're all thrilled. Today the excitement included sorting out my glasses and mugs cupboard. Woohoo.

Paul had an excellent church service on Sunday. It was like he was reading exactly what has been on my heart and mind recently. He talked about Faith. One of the verses we turned to was where the man says to Jesus, "I do believe, but help my unbelief." Sometimes this is where we are. Nate and I have been praying about our future and where it might lead us. I keep reminding myself to trust that God has our lives laid out perfectly and that He cares more about our future than we do. Sometimes when discouraging things come along, or when our dreams for the future crumble it's hard to believe and keep going. I know that God is good. He loves me. I do believe, help my unbelief.

There you have it. I hope my ramblings haven't put you to sleep! Now I'm off to walk on the treadmill for a while. Yes, the excitement continues.

(I just ran spell check on this and it wanted me to replace Nate with NATO. Hmmm.)

Why?

Nate and I were on the road a few days ago driving home when we spotted this guy on the side of the road walking and pulling his bicycle along with him. The road was level and it was a beautiful day so we were both puzzled as to why he wasn't riding! Wouldn't it be easier? So, then we came up with some excuses for him:

~ Maybe he had a flat tire.
~ Maybe he actually doesn't know how to ride.
~ Maybe he had saddle sores.
~ Maybe, partway through his ride, he forgot how!

Any other ideas?

Yet another scenic vista. 

I hope you are not getting tired of rose updates! 

You know you live in New England when...

Over the loudspeaker at the store you hear the announcement "Please come to our wicked fancy shoe sale..."

Peter ready to launch the ball deep into the outfield! 

Father's Day!

First of all, my Dad is the best in the world and I love him very much. He is such a good example of my Heavenly Father. He stays upbeat, even when life is rough. So, Daddy, if you are reading this, I love you. Thank you for being such a great and loving Dad.

I think it's time for new glasses. This morning in church we were singing along and there was a line in one of the songs about rubies. At first glance, I thought it said rabies. Yep. I'm a child of the King with rabies!

Today, Husband's Day in our home, was celebrated quietly. As soon as Nate got up this morning he opened the box of tools that he picked out a month ago for me to buy him. Power tools are the way to a man's heart. Only, I was worried he was going to lose an eye or a finger as he was playing with them.... After church we had a very quiet afternoon and then a really nice dinner at Chello's on the Waterfront. We shivered out on the patio and watched a few brave boats while the sun set. And now, my hero of a husband, is pawing through garbage bags looking for a rebate receipt that he accidentally threw away!

Melvin being cute! 

My rose is growing!  

An Upgrade, June Bugs and a Bee Sting

I've been at Fairwood for the past couple of days to be a support for Mom while Daddy was having his pacemaker "upgraded." This is the actual term they used in the hospital! He is now hooked up with two wires instead of one. I guess this means that I have a battery operated father! This new gizmo is also likely to increase his energy and he'll feel a lot better overall. He's home now and on the mend. Huge sighs of relief all the way around. To those of you who were praying, I thank you.

Last evening, Daddy spent the night at the hospital and after mom went to bed, I got on the Internet for a while. I was sitting at the kitchen table on my laptop when I heard the infamous noisy buzzing and sloppy flying of a June bug. I hate those things! They give me the creeps like nothing else...except the needles at the hospital...Anyway, I picked up my computer and fled to the safety of mom's chair, warily eyeing the beast and praying that Max, my parents' cat, would come and eat it. I lost track of it after a while and just went to bed. This evening, mom and I were sitting at the table playing a game, when another June bug came in and after Max played with it for a little while and I freaked out for a little while, mom calmly slapped a phone book on the stupid thing...I'm supposed to be here supporting her and she has to "save" me from a measly little bug? Pathetic, I know.

This morning, mom and I were getting ready to go to the hospital to pick up Daddy, and saw a bee buzzing around the window trying to find a way out. Max, ever curious, decided that this bee was a lovely new toy to be conquered and played with and ran over to the window sill to catch it, batting at it furiously. Well, you guessed it. Max discovered in a hurry that bees are not friendly when they are cornered and jumped from the window sill alternately shaking his paw and licking it. Poor Maxie-boy!

To top off this whole stress-free week, we've had two rip-snorting thunderstorms in the three nights that I've been here. It's amazing how loud the thunder is around here when it echos off the mountain. I was literally startled right out of my chair a couple of nights ago, it was so loud!

Here is another picture from the Cape...Oh, to be there now... 

A Good Day

Nate and I have had a good day off. We started the day doing major cleaning and tossing. Nate in the office and me in the kitchen. We were both so into our work that we forgot to eat until about 1 which was too late because we had to get ready to go to town to get the A/C fixed in my car. (When I told Brad while we were IM-ing earlier today, he told me that A/C is for wimps. I freely admit my wimpiness).

We decided that we should only take one car, because surely it wouldn't take too long for them to take care of our car and we could walk across the street and grab a bite to eat while we were waiting. Wrong. The place was teeming with people so we had to kill a little more time than we thought. We went to Applebees first and then to several stores. My husband is an awesome shopper. I am very lucky. After going to the dollar store which he enjoyed he then, without complaint, followed me patiently around a fabric store, a craft store and the Christmas Tree Shop. What a guy, huh?

After we picked up the car, we ran a couple of more errands and headed home. On our way home though, we stopped at an old cemetery. This is the second time we've done this and it's very fascinating to me to see these really old graves and wonder about the people buried there. Last time we went, we saw the grave of a woman buried in the 1800's with at least four smaller stones nearby where she had buried her children before her. I can't imagine the heartache.

Then (I know this is getting long, but I'm almost done), we stopped by the side of the road where a man had his telescope set up and he showed us an eagle's nest with two 9 week old eagles inside!!!

So, now we are home and Nate has fired up the grill so that we can have a delicious meal, and we are watching the Red Sox. Life is good.

Tidbits

Whoever said that animals are good for your blood pressure didn't know ours. Every morning, they feel the need to work out the kinks of a good night's sleep by racing around our apartment at top speeds with our valuables crashing behind them.

A couple of weeks ago 4 year old Amanda won some bubbles from me. She enjoyed them immensely running in and out with them through the day. At one point, I overheard her talking to herself as she was lining up the bottle of bubbles and the wands together, preparing for another trip outside. With her cute little-girl lisp, she said, "These are my guns and this is my ammunition!"

And, Tash, for the record, the Red Sox are superior.

Behold the beauty of Cape Cod 

A Weekend Away

Nate and I have decided that, until we have children, Mother's Day and Father's Day would be Wive's Day and Husband's Day. On Wive's Day Nate surprised me by telling me he was taking me away for four days to Cape Cod! So last weekend we went!

When we arrived at the Beach and Towne Motel, which claimed to have wireless Internet access, we had a few difficulties. One of the main reasons Nate chose this place was for the wireless access. The Beach and Towne Motel was built in the 50's and I don't think anything has changed in decor since. And our noses told us that there had been some smoking in our room recently. We were still ready to give the place the benefit of the doubt. We pulled out the laptop and excitedly turned it on waiting for the light indicating a connection and...no light. So, Nate went to the office and after a few more adjustments and whatnot, they decided to move us into a room closer to the signal, gave us our key and wished us a lovely weekend. With hope in our hearts, we opened the door with bags in hand and...someone else's stuff was in the room. We backed out carefully and Nate, once again went to the office. The third time's the charm, right? Ummm, no. The third room still had no decent signal and this was even after someone came into our room to help us with it, trying everything that Nate had already tried and practically refusing to leave. When we finally got rid of him, we drove away, shaking the dust of this retro motel off our feet. Relaxing so far, eh? Off we went then, to Panera to use their wireless connection to research other places to stay. At this point I was afraid that we were never going to find lodging and that the whole weekend was shot. Never fear. We did find a place out in Wellfleet and the rest of the weekend was spent shopping in nifty little stores and sitting by the ocean, cameras in hand seeking out the perfect shots to have enlarged and used for decorating our living room.

There is nothing so soothing and relaxing and refreshing as sitting by the ocean listening to and watching the waves. My soul is revived.

Our new rose bush just starting to grow.  

Harold gave me these beautiful flowers today! 

Pieces of my day...

Georgia is 8 today and Connie is 19 today! Happy Birthday!

Amanda wanted me to tell you all this: "Mrs. Penny! Say Amanda fell down and she hurt she knee!"

Harold's contribution to my blog: "This morning I jumped out of bed and fell on the floor and then bounced up and played with toys. Then you came driving up and I went outside."

Not your typical Sunday evening...hopefully

Forgive me, those of you who were there, if my order of events is a little off.

The evening started as most Sunday evenings do around here with Andrea, Melissa and I in the den watching Extreme Makeover - Home Edition. A lot of the evening's events happened in my peripheral vision as we watched yet another deserving family get a beautiful home built for them, led by Ty.

Melissa was in and out doing stuff and in the corner of my eye, I saw Paul and TJ head downstairs to play Ping Pong. A few minutes later, I saw a troubled Amy head down with the phone. A few minutes passed and Melissa came in with the info that there was a stranger sitting in a car in front of the church. Paul was out talking with her and TJ went darting into the darkness with a Bowie knife. "Hmmm, that's weird," said I or Andrea or both. I can't remember. We just kept watching TV, still fairly oblivious to the drama.

Meanwhile, I guess Melissa and Amy were on the phone back and forth with Laurie who saw someone running outside in the dark (who we later found out was TJ with his knife) and that this woman was still there. Finally, she (Laurie) drove down to our house. At that point, Melissa finally got it through our heads that this was scary, so we clambered off of the couch as Laurie was coming in and wondering if we should call the police. It seemed to her that this woman was acting really weird as she was talking to Paul. I ran down to get Nate, but I must have jumbled things up in telling him what was going on, because all he heard me say was that there was a strange man wandering around the property. I ran back upstairs without waiting for him and Laurie was on the phone with the police explaining the situation to them.

Nate came up a few minutes later, charging through the door ready for action! When I re-explained what was going on he settled back down and went outside to investigate himself and Laurie went back home.

We were so nervous waiting for word from any of the men, imagining the worst. Finally, they all came back and Paul told us what was really happening. This poor woman had just lost her sister and was very sad and distraught. She was simply grieving and trying to find the church where her sister was married. Paul had a good talk with her though. He gave her a brief gospel message, but as he was talking, Grandpa yelled out to him, "DON'T WORRY, PAUL, LAURIE CALLED THE POLICE!!!!" Needless to say the poor woman didn't linger. Paul invited her to come back anytime, so I hope she does. She could really use our love and our prayers.

An Evening of Culture

All right, finally I'm updating. Part of why it has been a while, is that I've been sick for the past few days. I doubt you all want to hear about my runny nose, sinus pain, chills and mounds of used tissue beside the couch where I was huddled in misery. I also doubt you want to hear about the mounds of dishes and laundry that I have to take care of today as a result of being out of commission.

Last night, we had the pleasure of attending a concert! It was Connie's Senior Recital. She's the 18 year old in the family that I work for. This was the first time that most of the family met Nate! Harold just about jumped out of his skin with excitement when he saw us, and then he was super shy. For the first half, Georgia and Harold sat with us. Georgia and I had fun keeping time with our fingers and pretending that we were playing the piano. She also kept a running commentary up in my ear about all that I missed yesterday since I stayed home sick. Then, for the second half, Harold and Amanda sat with us. This time, Harold and I counted the songs until it was time for what he considered the best part of the night: The Food! We also kept a close eye on the stained glass windows getting darker and darker as the evening went on. What beautiful music, though! Connie played the viola, piano, and even sang Amazing Love with her mother. For those unfamiliar with the song, Kristi sings it on her CD. Some recitals can be long and boring, but this was a truly soul-refreshing experience. I'm so glad we went.

So, Brother Moon/Tash/Silas, you can get off my back about updating my blog!