Back to Normal

Our power came back on in the wee hours of this morning!!!

The power itself being off for 40 hours wasn't that bad. The only major thing was the refrigerator/ freezer not working. I also missed hot water...


Like I said yesterday, it could have been worse. (see above pic)

So this week holds many changes:

It's my last full week with Martha and Adele. They go to school next week. While I'm so excited to see how much she learns and how many friends she'll make, I'm also really sad. I've had two fun years with Adele and have truly loved both of those girls like my own. I know we will keep in touch!

I start with my new little one next week! I'm excited about it. Hopefully I'll be able to introduce her soon!

Elizabeth leaves for Vienna tomorrow! We are excited for her, but I'm selfishly sad that one of my few girl friends here is leaving for a year! I have pictures of her goodbye party on my other camera... Coming soon.

Bryan starts classes at Harvard on Thursday! PhD or bust!
He also tells me that a perk of being a spouse is that I can sit in on any class. I'm totally going to do that!

I think that's everything to speak of at the moment!

All of the Lights

Our power went out first thing yesterday due to this:


We finally taught ourselves how to play cribbage! Bryan beat me because he called a couple of 'Muggins.' Who knew we'd learn an entire new set of vocabulary words to play this game? (fifteen-two, royal double, His Nob, the crib, pone, starter, two for His Nob... So weird)


We also entertained ourselves by reading and drinking to candle light.











All-in-all Irene wasn't that bad in Boston. It was just really windy and rainy yesterday. I saw a lot of debris on my way to work this morning. Tons of tree branches and small trees are down. The worst thing I saw was a huge tree branch that fell and totally crushed a parked car. The scene looked like that mayhem/Allstate commercial.

Our power is still out with no estimated time of being turned back on. That is a slight inconvenience, but we know to be grateful because it could have been infinitely worse. After all, we aren't alone in this; 4 million other people are without power today too!

What is Happening

This week we had an earthquake and now we are waiting for hurricane Irene to hit... I'm pretty sure I'm still in Boston. These things don't happen here!

Never a Dull Moment

AKA: Adele Goes to the Hospital

She was running through a double doorway this morning. The right side was closed and the left side was open. She tripped and fell full force into the closed side!
Once she calmed down enough to tell me that her head hurt I was able to pull back her bangs and see this:



Of course I had a mini panic (internal panic though- I didn't want her to see concern on my face) we put an ice pack on it, sent this photo to Tiffanie, and called the pediatrician who said to come in just to be safe... So a little while later we were off to the hospital!

Here we are in the waiting room:


You can see the lump on the left side of her head.


And Martha did really well eating a snack and waiting patiently.

After seeing the doctor and getting a clean bill of health we were all in much better spirits!

Lollipops all around!

My Worlds

I'm watching The Terminator and cutting pieces for my first try at a quilt... My two selves are colliding.






My sweetest husband in the whole wide world celebrated his birthday Monday. We're celebrating all week!
I'm so glad to have had the honour of spending another year with you, Love!

Taste Off Face Off

After much debate about who could 'totally tell the difference between cheap beer X and other cheap beer X' we decided to put some feet to the fire with a 2011 Taste Off Face Off.
8 Cheap/ Lite beers were assembled. Cups were numbered. Ballots were created.
It was much harder than it sounded.
The Contenders:
Budweiser
Bud Lite
Miller High Life
MGD 64
PBR
Natty Light
Keystone
Coors Light

High Life, as most of us suspected was actually voted the best beer out of all of the contenders. MGD 64 was the hands down LOSER! It was SO BAD!
And then to get rid of all the half-full, numbered cups with warmish cheap beer we played a rousing game of Beer Pong!

Pie

Pie made with our wild Maine blueberries!

Our Anniversary

"Dearest Ashley, This weekend, I will whisk you away to celebrate 6 years of our wonderful marriage. We will awaken Saturday morning and leave the house around nine am. You should dress comfortably and cute for a car ride and some stops along the way. You will need the following for our trip: a bathing suit, some clothes for a nice evening out, overnight clothes, and clothes for some light hiking (and shoes).I love you!Bryan"

I got this sweet email from my husband Friday morning and this was all I knew!

When I got home, waiting for me was delicious champagne and a set of gold-rimmed rose-hued champagne coupes that I'd fallen in love with back in the spring! He's so sweet!

Also waiting for me was our very well planned and thoughtful itinerary for the whole weekend.

I also gave him his gift from me:

Saturday morning we headed north. We drove up to Portland, Maine, where we ate lunch at J's Oysters, walked around the city for a while, and got a delicious mixed berry pie from a locally owned and operated bakery!

A big bucket of Steamers (clams) (as recommended by Anthony Bourdain)

James river raw oysters. (We had a yummy lobster roll too... but it didn't last long enough for a photo!)

One of each please!!! We got a mini mixed berry pie and ate the whole thing in one sitting. We love pie.

We left Portland and headed north still to Lincolnville. We stayed at Point Lookout Resort and had a cabin all to ourselves. Strangely enough, we stayed in Cabin number 6 on our sixth anniversary on the sixth of August!

We did some hiking on this trail through the woods.

the trail was well marked... thank goodness... I'm no woodsman.

We hiked up to this lake. It was beautiful!

On the other side of the resort you could see out to the Atlantic Ocean.

We drove out to Rockland for dinner at Primo. (Also an Anthony Bourdain recommendation!) This place has a whole nose-to-tail philosophy about food. They grow many of their vegetables and herbs. They forage for dandelion greens, fiddleheads, mushrooms, etc. They raise pigs and chickens. They bake all their own bread. Cure most of their own meat... I'm ready to move to Rockland and do the same!

 We ate charcuterie, fried stuffed squash blossoms, steak, pork saltimbocca, and zeppole.

The chef and her husband converted this old mansion into the restaurant. It was lovely.

Today we drove up to Acadia stopping to visit Fort Knox and the observation tower.

Observation tower was in the top of the left tower.

We had hoped to spend the day in Acadia National Park hiking and driving but the weather didn't cooperate at all. It was pouring rain and cold most of the day and we ended up deciding not to go into Acadia because we didn't think we would be able to see any of the spectacular views. That just gives us a good reason to have to go back!!

We opted to eat lunch and head back to Boston. Lunch was wonderful!

We stopped into a lobster pound. Ordered lunch and picked our lobsters.

I'm pretty sure mine was staring into my soul.

And then he arrived a few minutes later steamed to perfection!

Most of the adults in the room were wearing bibs. We did not wear bibs.

Finally on the way home we pulled off the highway to get some fresh, locally picked Wild Maine Blueberries. These blueberries are tiny in comparison to the bigger high bush blueberries and are much more flavorful and less juicy! I can't wait to make some pies!

I had a really wonderful weekend! Thank you, Love, for all that you did to plan this trip and all that you do for me in our life together. I'm thankful every day for you and for how you love me! 

Make Way for Ducklings

We finally made it to the public gardens for a swan boat ride!
I think the girls had fun too. I could have ridden around all day!

Daydreaming about the Beach

Bryan's whole (immediate) family.

A & B

C & D (Cary & David) 

Happy Birthday Cary!!!!

I forgot to share this earlier but we saw a nest of baby sea turtles hatch while we were at the beach this year. It was amazing! No flashes or lights were allowed so I have no pictures of it. It was really amazing though. A hundred of them popped out of this hole in the ground and headed for the ocean. They would scoot all the way to the water and then ride the first wave out into the gulf.

Do we really have to wait a year for beach week to happen again?

This weekend: Our 6th Anniversary!! How wonderful! I have no idea what's in store, but Bryan does! I'll keep you posted!

Another Truth

Fabric Dying = Major Disaster, Huge Mess, Not Worth It, Ugly Puke-Burgundy Color...
But now I know....