Home Again! (for now)

After almost two weeks in NH staying with my Grandpa while Dad and Mom were away, I'm once again sitting in my own chair, with my own husband right here, and with my own cats running around. Even after leaving Nate for this long to his own devices he still loves me! Roses and baloons were waiting for me on the table and he brought chinese food home for dinner! This bliss will be short-lived though, because we leave on Saturday with Brad and Claire to go work our heads off in Gpa's house. My fortune cookie said, "You are given the chance to take part in an exciting adventure." How true.

On the spam front, I've been mildly annoyed at the stupid comments and finally changed the settings to only allow bloggers to comment. However, I have also received one mildly profane comment and decided, especially since I know some children who read my blog, to change the settings again so that you have to identify a word to comment. I appreciate your patience and continue to welcome and even wait with bated breath for comments from those I know and love!

"Oh, Atlanta, I hear you calling..."

Well, I think most of you know that Nate and I have been praying for a long time about moving to Georgia! We feel God leading us there and we are very excited! We will be buying a home, because the market is good down there right now and we plan on Grandpa Pass living with us for a while.

So, as Claire mentioned in her blog, there are a few things that we have to do first. Fly to CA with them and clean out Grandpa's house. Around 50 years of belongings to go through, so you can pray for speedy work and easy decisions on what to keep and what to throw away and what to give away. Anybody want to come lend a hand?

We are also planning a trip to GA in October to scope out houses. You can pray that will go smoothly as well. I keep saying, "When I grow up and own a house, I want..." I guess that time is quickly coming!

Overall, even with the busy schedule ahead of us, we are excited and God's hand has been in all of the events up until now leading the way to the south! We will miss our friends up north, but not the snow. Y'all are welcome to come down for a visit!

Evan and Jill invited Grandpa and me over to supper a couple of nights ago and I had fun taking pictures of their children and animals! 

Grampa-sitting!

I'm at Fairwood this week, until next Wednesday staying with my Grandfather (on my Dad's side) while Daddy and Mom are exploring the southern regions of our fair nation. Things have been going well so far. He has been incredibley grateful at the end of each meal for the work I have put into preparing them. He's easy to cook for because he's happy with whatever you put in front of him, which is good for me!

He has a huge collection of videos and it has become our habit for him to bring one out from his sitting room for us to watch together after dinner. So far, we've watched old Touched By An Angel episodes and last night we watched an old Cary Grant movie called Father Goose.

One evening we were sitting at the table in Mom and Dad's kitchen quietly eating dinner when I looked out the window and spotted Megan on the roof of the main house! She apparently climbed up to fetch a frisbee that has been there for months! Grandpa and I scurried to the window peering out eagerly to make sure that she came back down safely. She did, no worries, as nimbly as can be. It's been two days and G-pa is still talking about it. He even ventured out to claim the frisbee as a souveneir! I need to figure out a good way of suggesting that he return it!

After church today, I took him with me to visit my Grandma (on my mom's side). I was a little nervous about the visit, but they hit it off, leaning toward each other and bellowing about their infirmities as old people and coming to the conclusion together that it's best to Count Your Blessings no matter what stage of life you are in. Growing old is not for sissies.

I dashed outside in my pj's this morning to get this picture! 

With a name like this...

During the Red Sox's rain delay on Sunday afternoon, I had the tv turned down low until the game came back on. My ears perked up, though, when I heard the name of one of the Dodger's pitchers, Brad Penny!

Closet Nerd

Nate and I were both sick yesterday with food poisoning. Yuck. And yes, we had Subway after church at the same time that Andrea did. Hmm...something's rotten in the state of Rhode Island.

I think I had a fever last night and you know how dreams can get when you are sick! Let me back up first, though, so you know why my dreaming was weird. I've been watching NASA TV every day while the shuttle Discovery has been in space. It's been fascinating watching the space walks and other activities that they have been up to. I've also been impressed with how courteous and friendly the astronauts and the people on the ground have been with each other. They don't let little things bug them and don't express frustration when things go wrong. Oh, to be more like an astronaut! I even got up early yesterday to watch the shuttle land and when it didn't, I got up early again this morning. Brad says that I'm a nerd. Oh well. So, all of this to say that the shuttle has been very much on my mind.

I've also been playing a lot of backgammon on the computer. That's the game where you have to move your tokens around the board and if you don't have them in stacks of two or more the other guy can swoop in and land on you. Every time I close my eyes, I see these little tokens on the board. Yes, I know this is a sign of having played it too much. When I get over this food poisoning I'll stop...really.

So, last evening I went to bed early, partly because I was still feeling awful and partly because I knew I was getting up super early. In my confused feverish dream, I was on the shuttle, which was also our apartment. I was sick, in my sleepwear and trying to make sure that the tokens were all stacked so that we would land safely. I also knew that there were cameras set up so that the world could watch us in space and I was concerned that the next time I got up to rush to the bathroom to toss my cookies, that the whole world would see me in my pj's. So, I partially woke up and called to Nate to come in to the bedroom and told him calmly and courteously, like the astronauts, that if he could please get me some clothes to wear for when the shuttle lands I would really appreciate it. He informed me that I was not making any sense and that I had just used space shuttle and clothes in the same sentence! That's when I really woke up and realized that I had been dreaming. Poor Nate.

Walking My Cats

I have always believed that cats should be able to come in and out as they want. You don't have to have a litterbox for one thing, and when they start bouncing off the walls inside you can shoo them out to work off their extra energy. The coyotes that lurk in our local woods have changed my mind. Nate and I have had five cats in the four years that we've been married. We have two now, Stuart and Melvin. One cat, Cappy, we gave away. The other two, Sadie and Sophie, each went out to play and never came home. So, the decision was made for us that Stuart and Melvin would be inside cats. Poor fellows. A new idea came to me, however, that this didn't always have to be the case. They have cat harnesses now which you can attach a leash to so that you can take your cats out to play without any danger!

The first time I put the harnesses on the cats, they were not happy. One part wraps gently around the neck and the other wraps around the chest and the whole thing connects at the top of the shoulder blades. Our silly cats tried everything they could think of to get the things off. Crawling with their bellies on the floor, rolling onto their backs and even walking backwards! The next step was the leash and then convincing them to go outside with this whole getup. Once we got them outside, we quickly discovered as we followed our exploring cats around the yard that a four foot leash wasn't long enough. So, now we have those fancy leashes that extend as they move around the yard.

Cats are not dogs. They go under, into and around things chasing bugs and leaves. So, sometimes we have untangling to do! A lot of the time, they just lie down enjoying their pseudo freedom. One of the Brown's cats likes to come and lie down a few feet away, almost as if he's flaunting his true freedom. Cats, as you all know, are very independent and they don't come when you call them unless they happen to feel like it. So when it's time to go in, you have to plead and cajole and tug on the leash (gently, of course) until you finally have to just give up and pick them up and bring them in.

When the Brown's dogs first came down I was scared to death. All I could picture, as they carefully approached the cats, was a cartoon-like whirling dust-cloud at the end of the leash with fur flying everywhere! Thankfully, this was not the case. There was tentative sniffing, some eager tail-wagging from the canines and some fearful back-stepping from the felines and then some sort of agreement to peacefully co-exist. I was even more nervous when the Brown's cat came down, but that was an even more peaceful greeting. Maybe they just all feel sorry for these poor pitiful tethered creatures. I certainly feel silly sometimes babying my cats this way. I don't want to lose them, though.

Brad and Claire were house-sitting for Brad's boss and they graciously invited us to spend an evening with them there. Swimming, paddling and general hilarity ensued. 

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...