Last day of work

Today was my last day of work. This picture is of my empty desk! After 14 1/2 years of being a medical transcriptionist at Noble Hospital, the powers that be have decided to send the work to a service. We have known since September 8th that this was happening. The new contract didn't start until November 1st, so we worked for 7 1/2 weeks knowing that three of us would be done there. It has been a hard last week, but today was especially sad. People kept coming in all day to say their goodbyes. I have to say that this was probably my favorite job, by far the longest I have ever worked at one place. This last year things have changed a lot but there are many people that I will really miss.

Also......Halloween got cancelled in Agawam because of the power outage, so no trick or treating with Marley and Mason. Paul and I went to bed about 7:30 because it was just too cold to stay up, sitting in the dark.

Better days have to be coming because today was one of the lowest!

First snowstorm of the season

I had to work today (my last Saturday) and took this picture on the way home. They had been predicting a heavy, wet snowstorm for a couple of days. They also said that there would be a very good chance of power outages. An hour after I got home (4:30 p.m.) the power went out.

***Update - Little did we know at the time that we would be without power at our house from Saturday afternoon until Tuesday night. Mark and Janelle didn't get power until Friday.

These pictures were taken on Sunday, October 30, of our tree in the front yard. We were pretty lucky. We had limbs come down on three of our trees but nothing that couldn't be salvaged.




In the whole time that we have lived in our house, I don't remember a power outage of this magnitude. I will never take electricity for granted again!

Mason playing in the yard

This afternoon was so beautiful that after picking up Mason we played in the backyard for awhile. These are some cute pictures from this afternoon.











That evening Mason, Paul and I went to visit Dot. I brought my iPad and showed her some pictures. She really seemed to enjoy that (pictures really seem to "pop" on the iPad).



I'm so happy that she still seems to remember us all!

Pumpkin Carving in Woburn

Janelle's mother, Stacia, for the past few years has invited us all down to her house for a summer cookout, usually in August. This year, for many reasons, we could never come up with a good date until now, so it was decided that we would do pumpkin carving at her house.

While we were getting ready for dinner (which was delicious, by the way), Mason and Marley played outside.





Starting to carve.....



Mason wanted to help.





He thought it was "stinky" though.



Mark and Toby were slackers for awhile. Toby eventually got into it.



So did Mark.





Although we all felt that it was a "marginal" effort that Mark put forth!



This was one of Marley's pumpkins. She also made the one with the cat silhouette.



Kris did her job with the seeds again this year with enthusiasm. Stacia and I helped with this too. This really is one of the worst jobs!





Janelle's sister, Amy, has Rock Band for PlayStation and we all had fun playing with this.





In the end, these were our carvers.....




And these were our jack-o-lanterns.



What a really fun day. Thanks Stacia for hosting this!!

Craft Fair at Dave's Soda and Pet Food City

Kristen and Marley did their second craft fair at Dave's Soda and Pet Food City in Agawam today. It was in the back of the store and there were a lot of "pet" crafts. It was a perfect place for Marley; she loves to "browse" in Dave's and look at all the animals.

When we left there, Paul and I took a ride to Brimfield, MA. The tornado damage there was unbelievable. It looked like a bombed out war zone. Really.

There used to be a house at the end of this driveway; now just a foundation. Of course, it has been over 4 months so things are starting to get cleaned up, but it still looks awful - so sad for so many people.











P.S. More post offices.

Brimfield, MA


Fisksdale, MA


Palmer, MA

Mason's friends at Prims

The girls at Prims just love Mason. These two girls especially pay a lot of attention to him.

On this particular night, at the end of Prims when Baba came to get us, he told me to get my camera. Isabel had put Mason in the doll crib, put a bib on him, and proceeded to make him food on the play stove. It was amazing that he stayed there!

Mike's Maze

This was our second time going to Mike's Maze in Sunderland, MA. This year's theme was Noah Webster. It was a search for words that were in the original Webster's Dictionary. It was pretty difficult. I kept thinking that Marley's father, Toby, would enjoy this year's maze.

They had corn on the cob there which was delicious. Then we headed off to do the maze.












The sign in this picture says Irene walked through Noah too. Evidently Hurricaine Irene wrecked havoc with some of the corn maze in August.



We actually never finished the maze. It was pretty hard this year. But we had fun just hanging out there.