Santa Claus '08

This a Santa that I started last year and finally finished up over the summer. I have a new one started and hope to finish him up within the next several weeks. If I find time I will try to post some pics of him in the works.....I wish that my feelings of creativity were more in sync with my free time. I would surely get more accomplished! It always seems as though whenever I have some free time, I am not in the mood to sculpt.

Leaf Peeping Anyone??

Al and I just took a short trip through Western Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to do some leaf peeping. We left Sunday morning headed for St. Johnsbury, Vermont. We didn't have any specific plans in Vermont. We were just looking forward to enjoying the beautiful ride. Sunday was a partly cloudy day so the tress didn't always show their true vibrancy- but when you did get those patches of sunshine, it was unbelievably beautiful. The mountains looked like they were covered with a soft blanket of oranges, yellows, and rich reds. We arrived at our hotel, got settled in, and struck out to find something for dinner.

We soon learned that it was probably a good thing that we didn't have too many high hopes for things to do, because just finding dinner in St. Johnsbury proved to quite a task. Let's just say that there were not many options in the area! We ended up with some dry, sauce-less chicken parmesan takeout that we ate back in the hotel room. The location.....not so great, but I loved this hotel room. Not fancy, but so comfy and convenient. It was just easy to settle in and feel right at home. In the morning we headed east toward North Conway, New Hampshire. The scenery was breathtaking to say the least. I did take pictures, but they don't begin to do justice to the beauty of the mountains in person so I am not even going to post them. We arrived earlier than expected and stopped at The Settler's Green Outlet Mall to do a bit of Christmas shopping for the kids. We had never been and were pleasantly surprised at both the quality and quantity of shopping options located there. Our hotel for Monday night was located right in the heart of North Conway and convenient to everything. It wasn't quite as comfortable as our previous room, but it served it's purpose as a clean, quiet place to sleep and shower. We spent the rest of our time in North Conway doing a bit more shopping for the grand kids and just relaxing. There was one place that we drove by every time we left the hotel called The Christmas Loft.

It was decorated outside for Christmas with trees and lights galore. What really caught my eye was a huge jolly looking Santa in one of the front upstairs windows. He was just beckoning me to come on in. After several trips by the place we finally said"What the heck!", and pulled in. Now, I love all things Christmas, I mean I really love all of it!! I get sucked into the commercialism of it, I know that it's wrong, and I try to fight it, but I just can't help it. We walked into the store and I was full of my usual amount of Christmas enthusiasm. Our senses were immediately bombarded with everything and anything Christmas  that you can think of. All you hear from every direction are the noises of the holiday, bells and toys, Ho Ho Ho's and jingle bells. It is room after room of ornaments, figurines, gifts, Santas, many motion activated, some animated, and most noisy. I am still not 100% sure if this experience was "Christmas Heaven" or Christmas Hell". Whatever your feelings about the commercial part of the holiday; if you're ever in North Conway you should check this place out just for the experience of it. All in all, we had a fun and relaxing couple of days, the foliage was perfect, and it was nice to have some alone time with Al. With the hectic work days that we keep and weekends that fly by we don't get much quiet time together.

Fryeburg Fair Fun

This past Saturday afternoon Greg, Amanda, and Maddox struck out on the adventure known in these parts as the Fryeburg Fair http://www.fryeburgfair.com (Pronounced "Fayuh" if you are a true Mainer.)

It promised to be cold and breezy night so they bundled up in warm clothes. Amanda even broke out Maddox's  gloves and winter hat. Maddox's theory was that his hat was a snow hat and he would only wear it if there was snow at the fair. As you can see in the pictures somewhere along the way he decided that the hat was a cold, windy, fall night hat as well. This is the largest fair that comes to the area and it is generally wall to wall people from the day it opens until it's closing day. Reports from the kids tell me that this year was no different. Generally, if you don't arrive at the fairgrounds early in the morning you will end up paying a good amount of cash to park on a private resident's lawn. This lawn is usually a good two miles from entrance. The kids lucked out in that they found free parking, but had a loooong walk to the gate. They managed to make their way around despite never ending waves of people, ate ridiculously over priced fair food, and took in the sights. The sights mostly consisted of every possible breed of farm animal along with various home baked goodies,crafts and handiwork all entered in contests in hopes of winning that elusive fair blue ribbon. A good time was had despite the chilly temperatures and Maddox was thrilled that he rode on a real horsie.

Pardon the quality of the pictures, Mandy brought along her camera, and it does not do well in low light situations. :)

You Say Stubborn, I Say Decisive

Mandy arrived to pick Maddox up from preschool to find him sitting by himself, not participating in the end of the day recess. Upon speaking with his teacher she learned that he didn't want to clean up his station after table time. The rules are- if you don't listen to Miss Linda you have to sit out. Miss Linda had been forewarned that Maxie can have a bit of a stubborn streak, but this was her first time actually seeing it put into action. She said that he pretty much sat out most the day, very calmly replying, "Nope." each time she would ask him if he was ready to clean up.

Mandy: "Maddox did you have a bad day?"
Maddox: "I did."
Mandy: "How come?"
Maddox: "Because I didn't clean up my station."
Mandy: "Why didn't you clean up your station?"
Maddox: "Because I didn't want to."

On the car ride home Mandy explained how important it was to listen to Miss Linda if he didn't want to sit out again. Maddox readily agreed that he did like school and that he wanted to listen to Miss Linda. He made it very clear that he didn't want to be naughty. Yay! parental victory. The next day in hopes of reinforcing the lesson that had been learned from the experience Mandy initiated the conversation once again:

Mandy: "Maddox, you have school tomorrow, are you going to be a good boy?"
Maddox: "I am!"
Mandy: "Are you going to listen to Miss Linda?"
Maddox: "I am!"
Mandy: "Good boy!"
Mandy walks away once again feeling a satisfying sense of victory in the parenting department when a little voice speaks out:

Maddox: .............."But I'm not gonna clean my station."

Hoping For A Starry Night

Today would have been my mother's 67th birthday. She has been gone since January 2007 and for some reason I have been finding her in my thoughts much more often during the past several weeks. Maybe it's because of it being her birth month or maybe it's just where I am in the process of it all, I don't know.

Life does have a way of just moving forward and it's easy to push things to the back of your mind in the everyday hustle and bustle of just getting by.
I think that I let myself grieve just enough when she passed and then I just got on with things. That seems to be what I do. I am a great listener, but not always so good at opening up about myself and my own feelings. It seems like only now am I really feeling the true feelings of loss and having these moments of just missing her. It's not entirely a sad thing though, in some ways it's almost a comfort to just feel the emotion of it; if that makes sense? I actually had a dream about her for the first time recently. I have always thought it was strange that I never dreamed about her after she passed. I don't really remember what the dream was about, but I remember that she was in it, and that it was nice. It felt peaceful. I miss you Mum...............      

"Perhaps they are not
stars in the sky,
but rather openings
where our loved ones
shine down
to let us know they
are happy." 

(Unknown)
_________________

My Blog's New Look

I started poking around online several weeks ago to see if there was some way to make this blog feel a a little bit more like my own. I found several sites that gave good examples of how to change the code to get more of a personal look. I have been mucking around with things for a while now and have finally managed to get things working, and learned how to include some of my own graphics. Now it feels more like "home." Hopefully this will also mean that I will be inspired to update more often! Anyway, I had fun making my new header. My goal is to change it up a bit now and then, maybe go with the current seasons and holidays. Hope you like the new look.

This Year's Apple Adventure

Ahhhh, it's that time of year again! Al, Mandy and the kids went out last week to pick apples at one of the local farm/ orchards. It's a small family run place that grows and sells various fruit and vegetables throughout the Summer and Fall months. Depending on what they have, the kids also get to see and interact with some farm animals as well. The kids always enjoy the horse drawn wagon ride out to the apple orchards. Mia wasn't too sure what to make of the horses, but she did remember their names and as soon as she got home she told me that they were Abe and Abbey.

Maddox seemed to emerge as the apple picker of the family, while Mia made herself known early on as the official taste tester. Maybe this could be a potential career for her since it is rare to find anything that this girl won't eat or at least try!

I'm not too sure what was happening here. Maybe it's best for a Nana not to know. All I know is Mimi looks really determined and Maddox looks like he's thinking, "Uh oh, she's gonna fall and I'm gonna get blamed!"

ABC's & 123's

Maxie started a new preschool this fall and so far he seems to really like it. They have been going over all of the usual Fall things, learning to recognize their own names in print and most importantly how to be good little preschool citizens and classmates. So far there have been none of the teary mornings that Mandy had to deal with last year- and she hasn't had to peel him from her leg in order to drop him off. What a difference a few months make!

What's One More?

Here is the newest addition to our already bursting at the seams household. This is Mandy's new friend. He is an 8 month old Solomon Island Eclectus parrot. His name is Jasper. He is quite beautiful and so far he only makes noise when he hears loud music....he is particularly fond of Shakira. He has been quite friendly and gentle as evidenced by the fact that we still have all of our fingers and toes. These birds can become very good talkers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMx10BUgzEM
If it holds true that they learn whatever phrases they hear the most often, his first words are sure to be either Naaaaannna!!!, Emmy Peed!!!, or MADDOX CADEN!!! GIVE THAT BACK TO MIMI!!!

Imagine That!

Our house has become quite a treacherous place to be these days. It started last weekend when Maddox and I were home alone quietly enjoying a movie. As I headed to the kitchen for something drink Maddox yelled “Nana! Be careful Alligator is coming! Run!” He and I had quite an adventure that night! We were finally able to escape once the hungry alligator fell asleep. I don't know if we have inadvertently awakened some sort of Jumanji like spirit in our home, but we have since been plagued with crocodiles (they have big teeth like the alligator) the occasional lion, various dinosaurs, and this morning we all found ourselves running to escape the scalding breath of a fire breathing dragon! Maxie is spending the night with Jamie and Josh tonight. I suppose I should warn them just I case any of this wild life has managed to sneak away with him in his back pack. Funny thing- if they can just manage to survive until Maddox falls asleep, the spell seems to lift and the creatures vanish. Go figure.

Sweet dreams little man.............................and remember; The alligator likes cookies.