Blue Skies!

The above picture is what we experienced last Thursday and Friday…isn’t it beautiful?! Big fluffy flakes-I think we must have accumulated about 3 inches. But weather changes quickly, because today is Tuesday, and this has been the last few days:

Coming in for a landing...

beautiful weather for the park!

zoom!

It’s been gorgeous since Sunday. Thank you Jesus!

Grandma came through Surgery fine but is understandably worn out and still has a few little heart issues to deal with. So keep the prayers coming…we love you Grandma!

And to all my friends who I have neglected sending emails to lately-I’m waaaayyyy behind-so sorry! Let me catch up on my house a bit and you’ll get a well deserved hello!

Snow and a Prayer

This…

isn't that a great picture? My dad took it last week! Early morning frosts are so beautiful.

is now covered by snow!  3 inches, maybe? I think it surprised the weathermen too…yesterday morning we were expecting some moisture in the evening from a storm that was out to sea…but it gave us a little more than we bargained for!  In the meantime, it’s gorgeous-everything is covered in white.  There were big, white fluffly flakes all day yesterday.  We snuggled up by the fire, had popcorn, and watched Sabrina (one of my all time faves…I think I might even pop it in again today!)  I cannot, for the life of me, find the boy’s snowboots, so I’m hoping they will be ok staying by the fire today instead of out romping around.  Must find those boots for the next snow-I think this will quickly melt away seeing as though this weekend will be in the 60’s vicinity again.

Anyway, the MAIN purpose for this post is to ask for prayer for my grandma.  She is having surgery today in order to get a pacemaker…and all prayers for safety and a quick recovery would be welcomed!

Thanks yall, and have a super weekend!

A Sweet Weekend

Disclaimer…I’m not a fan of Halloween. Not a fan of “scary”, or kids hyped up on too much sugar.  Matter of fact, last year Erick and I just loaded up the kids and had a great meal in Bangor at a restaurant…no scary costumes in sight!

However, this year we decided we’d attend our church party-but I hadn’t had the funds, nor the time to come up with any kind of costume. I actually convinced the boys to wear their superman pajamas, which they weren’t thrilled about, but they went along.

Saturday morning, I decided to finally go through a bag of clothes that a friend had given me (she had gotten them from another friend), and low and behold…two non-scary costumes! That FIT my children! Talk about happy boys, who wore them ALL day long!

Jack the superhero and Ryan the Lion! Excuse the mess in the background!

The party was a success. But we had bigger and better things to do the next day…because this little boy woke up as a newly certified 3 year old!

Isn't he cuddly?

He came busting into the house after church, immediately asked if his cake was ready, completely missing the fact that there was a balloon bouquet right in front of him. LOL.

I told him to turn around, and of course he was thrilled. All little kids need are balloons…he asked me to take them apart from their “bouquet”, and he proceeded to say “This is the BEST BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER!” over and over. (Why did we even bother with gifts? It’s the simple things!)

Daddy is reading his card, which says "Would you like to go Bowling this afternoon?" Of COURSE!

The boys had a ball bowling, and Jack won! For the first time, and on his birthday to boot!

he was so excited, he would hardly sit still when I was putting his bowling shoes on...

We came home to cake and presents…did I mention that I didn’t like kids hyped up on too much sugar? Ha!

licking the frosting off candles

I kid you not; while Erick and I were busy elsewhere a little bit later in the evening, Jack came in to where we were working with hands and face covered in cake. Turns out he had dived in and grabbed handfuls. Oh, and turns out he never actually ate any of his birthday pizza…the child had cake all day. Awesome. Maybe that is why he passed out for 3 hours this afternoon? Delayed sugar coma, perhaps?

Anyway, Happy Birthday to my little one. 3 years old! I can’t believe it!

We love you, sweetface!

Priorities

When your life is incredibly crazy…all it takes is a 4 year old’s wisdom to get your priorities straight again.  Let me tell you a little story…

Busy doesn’t even begin to describe our household lately-especially Erick-he has so much on his plate I can’t fathom how he functions.  Minus the job and the Master’s degree and some church obligations (which are actually wonderful) our Saturdays and Sundays are filled either with roofing the house we are in or working at the house in Dexter so we can get it on the market.  E and I both worked in Dexter last Saturday but didn’t get as much accomplished as we had hoped, so in a completely overwhelmed state of mind, E decided that he would have to forgo church on Sunday morning and put in a full day in Dexter.  Exhausting thought, but we desperately need to finish the house…

Sunday morning, Ryan hops on the bed (before he even knows that Daddy will be away all day) and he announces “Saturdays and Sundays are for Daddies to stay home and play with their kids!!”

You have to understand that Ryan rarely comes out and says “this is what I need”.  He is every inch a “hinter”.  He usually dances around the subject instead of full on telling us what he needs (one example…”I need some cooked pieces of bread with cheese in the middle”…aka cheese sandwhich, lol).   So to come out and practically say “I need my DAD!” really was something.  So of course we change plans, and all get ready for church, wherein we hear an AMAZING sermon that spoke to us so thoroughly and completely about prayer, but it doesn’t stop there…our pastor acutally reads verses from Harry Chapin’s Cats in the Cradle, which is even more of an affirmation.  Wow.

Sooooo, after church, Daddy played with the boys and we went on a family trip to Portland.  It was awesome.  We had so much fun.   And please understand-Erick is such a fantastic and involved dad-everyone who knows him knows that.  It’s just that free time has been very limited lately.  However, after Sunday, we have decided that a change of priorities is in order.  We would actually covet your prayers, and even your suggestions!  With the weekends being the only free time to finish renovation in one place and roofing in another, but with that also being the only time currently that can really be dedicated to family time, we need to reorganize somehow, putting family at the top of that particular list.

Anyway, here are some pictures from that day-a day that will always stand out in our minds, and I bet in the boys, too.  God is Good!

Isn't this a classic?

the camera unfortunately didn't give momma immunity from the jack attack

rugosa rose hips

the waves were crashing, but the weather was gorgeous!

Portland Head Light

One Fantastic Daddy

Indian Summer Day

Whew! Today was gorgeous…and I was stuck inside! Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning…normally I’d completely blow off my obligations and head somewhere beautiful, but life has kept us on our toes lately. I have some truly wonderful pictures to share, but they’ll be coming in the next post or two once I have time to catch my breath a bit.

Here’s another installment of the Nora saga in the meantime. Oh! And to my facebook friends-I’m trying to figure out how to disengage my “notes” from automatically downloading my blogs, because many of you have complained of not being able to see pictures. Once I figure that out, I’ll start adding the links to my posts instead. But until then…click right on this wordpress link and it should take you straight to the source.

Girls Week in Review

Girl’s Week Out…was successful. 

Joy and I had a great week, even though our first major cold snap came for a visit the day she did! (And by the way, Joy…today was the best day we have had since you came-Jack was even in short sleeves all day and I never donned a jacket!  Talk about timing!)

I introduced Joy to Maine, or Maine to Joy…however you want to say it-starting at Cadillac Mountain on Friday morning, and of course it was so frigid we were about to freeze our fannies off.  But we did manage a quick picture before we nearly became victims of frostbite!

get us back in the car!!!!!

We hit up Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor, and Northeast Harbor before leaving MDI and heading down the coast to spend the night in Camden…where we talked until the wee hours of the morning, becoming completely hoarse.  It was great.   The next day we visited a local vineyard, and shopped a bit in Camden and Rockland.

a delicious tasting

We arrived home Saturday night, then spent a lazy Sunday after church driving up to Dexter then winding down with pizza and the Food Network in the evening.

Monday we zipped down to Portland with mom-the waves were really crashing at the lighthouse, but the weather was beautiful and downtown was hopping.

Portland Head Light...a rock near it anyway!

I was extremely pleased that the fall color was still in full swing everywhere we went.  And the rain that was supposed to fall every day of the week…it never made an appearance minus a 10 minute cloud burst one afternoon.  I feel it was God’s little gift to us!

After I dropped Joy off at the airport Tuesday morning, I spent a marathon day housecleaning my neglected nest…accomplished more than I have in a great while.  So if anyone else is up for a visit, maybe I could wind up with a sparkling attic. I’m up for it if you are!

10 Years!!

We’ve hit the marriage decade mark! And it’s been SO MUCH FUN!

I love you babe. More than you’ll ever, ever comprehend. Thanks for everything.

Nora Number 6!

I leave you with a picture of my favorite tree on Main Street…

Oh, you should see this shot when the sky is brilliant blue. Ahh...

and Nora Number 6!  I’ll be off to pick up Joy later and have a few gloriously girlie days together!  Prayers for safe travel appreciated!

Trouble in paradise?    See you soon!

Calling all Friends!

Prayer Time!

This little baby…

was born a lot early! His name is Cash, and his Momma and Daddy are Melissa and Shawn.

aren't they the cutest? next to their baby?

Melissa and I were good friends in Junior High, way back when. Facebook brought us together again (yay!) and I’ve been following her beautiful pregnancy photos…until one day there was a “born baby” update…right out of the blue! Here’s where it gets crazy-Melissa was diagnosed with the very same thing I was when I had Ryan…Hellp Syndrome. Crazy, because it’s so rare. So I have a special interest in this family, because I can absolutely understand what they are going through. And what got me through was the fact that we literally had people praying for us across the entire nation. Word spreads fast, which means prayer spreads fast, which is an Excellent Thing! So if y’all could pray for Shawn and Melissa and Cash, I would appreciate it, and I know they would too. Pray that little Cash would gain weight quickly and his organs would function properly, and that Melissa and Shawn would have peace throughout this ordeal. They live about an hour from the hospital-that’s quite a haul. Here’s hoping for a baby home in time for the best Thanksgiving Meal ever!

Thanks, so very much!

Stay up there, already!

Don’t you wish the leaves would just stay on the trees? They are so pretty up there in the fall, and are even pretty on the ground, but then they start to pile up. Therein lies the problem.

Beautiful! When it's a leaf, here or there.

And pine needles...let's not even get started with pine needles.

Combine the two, and you're really asking for trouble.

Maybe the boys could haul 'em all away?

Maine life ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at! Or it is, actually, depending on your sinus situation in the fall. But boy, you have to be of hardy stock to live in a place like this. Because it not only involves raking, but hauling and stacking, too.

from this...

to that.

But for me, it’s still The Way Life Should Be. (Although I could be easily enticed to move south about mid-February through, oh, April. I would have no problem with that. Just so you know.)