Sunday Dinner

Today we had a big family Sunday dinner here. My Dad, Marge and Lori came; Dot, Fred, Kris, Toby and Marley, Mark, Janelle and Mason, along with Janelle's Dad Joe and her sister Amy. Quite a crowd (15 in all). My Dad had quite a scare with his health lately. His biopsy came back negative, and he is really feeling much better. We all had a really good time together today. Sometimes things happen to make you realize how special family is and how you need to make time to spend together.

Izzy's got her perch back

When we bought Paul's new recliner on Tuesday, we decided to do away with Izzy's perch (I know, how mean!).

When she jumps down off her perch, she jumps on to Paul's chair. Sometimes she jumps on his head, scaring him near to death, and there is always the chance of scratches on the chair.

We thought she would get used to it. She didn't seem to notice much on Tuesday or Wednesday (or at least we didn't know). On Thursday night she jumped up on my scrapbook table, and then on to a little tool-box type thing that I keep scrapbooking stuff in. The next jump would be on to the perch. Paul had put boxes up there so that she couldn't jump up there. She sat on the toolbox and looked up there, looked at us, and then cried. It was pathetic. We couldn't stand it. Paul started on a quest to make the perch available but re-route her exit off the perch. It would have been a lot easier if we could have just asked her to jump down a different way!!

Anyhow, tonight he rigged up a baby gate on top of the bookcase. She can still survey her world up there, but it forces her to get down the back way instead of jumping on the chair. I know, it looks rather weird, but hey, we are cat people. What else can I say!

10 more inches!

This was the scene this morning when I left for work. Channel 22 said 10 inches in Agawam. I've had enough already, and it's still only January.






On a different note....Big Baba's sister, Aunt Nancy, gave Mason a cute little sweat suit for Christmas. He had it on tonight so I took some pictures of Mason and his Daddy to send to Nancy.

Throwback Thursday - 1940's Bethany weddings

Today at church a friend of ours gave Paul a DVD; on it were videos of weddings in the 1940's from my church - not the whole wedding, just pictures of the bride and groom, the wedding party and whatever guests were milling about. Evidently the pastor's wife of our church at that time did the videotaping. There is no sound, just the movies. I didn't even know there were video cameras back then. Somehow this friend and her mother were in contact with the daughter of the pastor's wife and obtained them.

One of the couples was Paul's parents; they were married in 1949. I have seen this picture before, but to actually see them in a movie was so cool. You see them actually getting into the car and driving off.

Many of the couples were parents of our friends and we knew them well. Actually, one set of Toby's (my son-in-law) grandparents were on this too. It was so much fun to watch this. What a treasure to have.

When Marley saw Big Baba, she said "Oh my gosh!"

Paul's new chair (the third time)

Today we brought home another chair. Can you believe it? Last Saturday Paul decided the LL Bean chair was going back. I guess it wasn't the perfect chair that he had thought it was and it was too expensive not to be perfect. I think he finally realized that what he wanted was a recliner. So, while I was at my crop on Saturday he brought the chair back to LL Bean in Connecticut. Today we went to Lazy Boy and bought this recliner. I hope this is the end of the chair quest!

Yet another snowstorm

This was the scene on my way into work this morning. This is the third storm in 9 days. I'm snow weary.

Visit with Ralph and Linda

Tonight we got together with some friends at Ralph and Linda's house. Ralph retired this fall. They built an in-law apartment onto one of their son's houses up here, and they have a condo in South Carolina where Linda has family. They left on Christmas Day to go to their condo. Ralph is still consulting for awhile at his work and they came back up for a week or so.

This picture of Ralph was done by the people at his work for his retirement party. I think it is hysterical. Linda brought it out to show us and we asked her to pose by it so we could take a picture.



Linda was giving me a tour of her little house/apartment and in their spare bedroom upstairs was this little door. Behind it is storage space. Isn't it cute?

This is little door #10.



On our way out, Ralph asked if I had seen the little door in the garage. It holds the central vac canister. This is little door #11.



They're heading south again soon. I'm thinking they have a fun little life for themselves!

Throwback Thursday - Dad and his sister Esther (Ettie)

My dad has been in the hospital for a few days and today Kristen and I went to visit him. We got talking about old pictures and this picture came up. It is a picture of my dad and my aunt "Ettie". Maybe he is making that weird face because of the socks he was wearing!

This has been a strange week, a week of reflection. I hope he's going to be okay.

Cooking Badge

We are working on a cooking badge in Prims now. Tonight we made cut-out bologna and cheese on Ritz crackers. When I asked the girls to hold them up, some of them put them over their eyes. You never know what these girls are going to do next!

Getting Ready to Crop

Tonight I was getting things ready to bring to a crop at my friend Janice's house. It's always a fun day!

Daddy's little helper

Paul was doing some organizing today and Izzy wanted to help!

Marley's paper dress

This Friday night Marley said she had something she needed to do for school. She needed to make a dress for a play (I think - I will have to verify this). She had the paper already. She asked if would could pretend that we were sisters who sewed clothes for people (anyone who knows me, knows that that would never happen). Eventually (since she was doing all the work), she decided that I would be the business end of the company. With a little help getting into it and re-stapling and re-taping, the dress was finished. The only problem - she could only bend her arms at the elbows. Not comfortable.

In the end she decided to nix the idea of the paper dress and go with an old choir robe that I have that she plays with. We both decided that that was a better choice, and that we had at least had fun with the "sisters who sewed" aspect.

Memorial Service

Maybe some day I'll write the story.

Nor'easter

Well, a Nor'easter blew through our neck of the woods today - leaving, according to one local news station, 18.5 inches in my town. Paul took these pictures while he was out shoveling. His work got cancelled today. Mine, of course (I work in a hospital) did not.

These two pictures are in my back yard.





This is my neighbor across the street, Good Carl (I call him Good Carl because his house and yard is always perfect. His lawn is always mowed perfectly and his snow is always shoveled perfectly. Paul says I call him Good Carl as opposed to Bad Paul).



With this snow, winter will be here for a good long time!

Sock Afghan

Yesterday Kris brought over her sock afghan that she is working on. All of the squares are made from yarn of socks that either she or someone else have made. I tried to pick out the squares of socks that she has made me (and Paul; he has two pairs), and then I put our socks on the afghan. While I was wondering if I was getting them in the right squares, she pulled out a paper with a print out of the afghan. Each square had the person she had made that sock for, or the person who had given her the yarn. Yikes. I think everyone in my family has a little bit of OCD. The only problem is each person has a different OCD and we are not always tolerant of each other's particular OCD - LOL!

This is the afghan without the socks -

American Girl look alikes

Marley got a matching American Girl outfit for her and her American Girl doll for Christmas. She wore it to church today (her doll wore hers and came to church too). I think they are just so cute!



P.S. This American Girl doll is Mia, the American Girl Doll of the year 2008 (or Helen as Marley re-named her) given to her by Grandma Barb Christmas 2008.

Quincy Christmas

Tonight Big Baba brought over Christmas gifts for Marley and Mason from Quincy. His two sisters, Nancy and Eleanor live there. Mason wasn't here tonight but I had Marley pose for a picture with her presents so we can send it with a thank-you note. Thanks Aunt Nancy and Aunt Eleanor!

What's up with this hair?

I think Mason's hat did this to him. He looks like a wild man!


Friday night and Marley made a tent in Paul's old new chair.

Back to Reality

After being away for five days it was back to reality tonight! We are starting our cooking badge and tonight we "frosted" cookies. The girls were totally sugared out!

The Trip Home

This is our car packed for the trip home today. Paul always says he is a good packer. He sure had a test today with the chair and ottoman in there. He was able to get everything in!







We took a ride to York Beach on the way home. Nubble Light was beautiful. I have loved it ever since we spent our honeymoon in York (40 years ago, can you believe it?).






How's this for a seaside Christmas tree?



York Beach, Long Sands, had seaweed strewn all over the parking lot. There must have been quite a storm here.






Poor seagull; he looks cold.




From York Beach we drove down to Kittery and Bob’s Clam Shack. They have the best scallops anywhere, by far.






After that it was onto the highway. Garmin says we should be home by 5:02. Mark is coming over tonight to help Paul get the chair out of the car and into the family room. We also have to rearrange some chairs. I think it is going to be a late night - goodbye vacation getaway!

Hanging out at LL Bean

I like to take a picture of us in front of the current catalog cover that they have hanging in L.L. Bean (Paul humors me).

This picture was taken back in January 2007. Some things don't change much!




We started out today by taking a ride to Portland. Last night I read a book about Maine fairy houses and it mentioned that in Portland at Mackworth Island, people have made fairy houses. I wanted to see if I could see them. It didn't work out too well. Paul had bought new boots last night and his feet were killing him (good thing Bean has a good return policy) so we didn't get too far on the trail. Also, it was freezing out. We'll try again next trip. It really was beautiful here.



Today was very relaxing compared to yesterday (buying the chair) which was nice for our last night here.