Memorial Day in Maine

Another awesome trip, and it is about time I posted about it!


Patrick had never been camping and I wanted to show him how much fun it can be. So we invested in a ton of camping gear and booked a site on the coast of Maine in Cape Neddick. We stayed at Dixon's Campground, which I highly recommend. The grounds were lovely, they had great facilities, and were well maintained.



We arrived in Maine on the Wednesday night leading into Memorial Day weekend. We had to pitch our new tent in the dark, with only the moon, and our headlights illuminating the site. Then we ate a late dinner of grilled chicken breasts, that had been marinating for 24 hours, and we were early to bed!



The following morning we awoke refreshed and ready for the Maine experience. After making breakfast, we ventured out to Ogunquit beach (Pictured at the top). It was breathtaking. The beach was sandy, with huge sand dunes separating the ocean from the Ogunquit River. It was sunny, yet windy, but the scenes were gorgeous, and the fresh Maine ocean air was the best! After walking and exploring there for an hour or so, we traveled north to Kennebunkport. What an adorable little town! Here is a picture of the back of all the little stores.. I loved how close together they all were, and how they backed up to the waterway! This was my favorite town of the trip. It was just the right size of quaintness, yet not desertedly small. There were things to do and places to go, and we soaked it up. We made our way through Kennebunk on our way back to the campground later in the day and just hung out. We had another good couple of meals on our awesome little camp stove, and roasted marshmallows on sticks over the fire that night.


Friday morning we decided to check out Portsmouth, NH, as we were just a short jog over the ME, NH line.
We wandered around there for the better part of the day. It was a nice town as well. Lovely views, and fun shops. We made a pit stop at york beach on our way back, and then ventured back out again a little later for a Maine Date night, of mini golf, and sundaes! Patrick may have won mini golf, but I got 2 hole-in-ones! Making Grandpa proud!
We made our way back and made another fire until we were too tired from all that fresh air, and called it a night.

Saturday, we spend the morning packing up. On our way out we stopped and bought some live Lobsters...eek! (They were to bring to his parent's house for their anniversary.) Then we had some lobster rolls overlooking the ocean on York Beach. It was everything I could have expected from that lunch and more! I have never tasted lobster so fresh and delicious!

We then drove down the east coast from Maine to New Jersey. (We saw a double rainbow on the drive, which I have never seen before, but I only managed to capture a single rainbow!) We made it to Patrick's parent's in time for their anniversary dinner, including the live lobsters... which I did not cook...don't worry.. but I did eat and they were fabulous! 2 meals of lobster in one day! I'm living the life! We also celebrated Patrick's birthday.


Sunday everyone took me to Princeton to show me around the town. It was a nice little town. Very collegiate. After some quality time with his family we got back in the car and drove home to Connecticut.

Monday became a much needed veg day after a lot of weekend fun!

Received Gift

Hooray! It fits! I don't yet have a picture of Laura in it that she would be okay with me blogging, but I did make my friend Lauren try it on before I sent it off, as they are similarly sized and I wanted to get an idea of the fit.

Project Details: Yarn-Lang Silk Dreams in Dusted Rose aka pale silvery pink. Pattern-Double V Cardigan from the Spring 2010 issue of Interweave Knits. Needles-Addi Turbo Circulars in Sizes 5 and 3, both 32" long.

I got all of the pieces done, and blocked it, but had never seamed anything before, so my friend Karen, from my SnB, helped me put it all together! It's good to have friends that share your hobbies so you can get help when you need it.


Today I am going to knitting group, then afterwards I will be attending a welcome home party for a friend who has been in the Middle East since just after Christmas. It is good to have her back, and it will be great to see her! Tomorrow, is Freddy's Birthday Party, which I have been helping a lot with, and will be there to make sure it all gets set up, goes smoothly, and then that it all gets cleaned up properly.

What are your weekend plans?

Alas, It's Laura's Birthday!

Woop! Happy Birthday to one of my very best besties! I love you and I hope you have an outstanding day. Wish I was there to help you celebrate.

This year, I am not having a scavenger hunt for Laura, but I made her a gift. Hopefully she will receive it today and then I can do a Finished Object Report on it tomorrow! Can you believe that I actually finished it with enough time... well I finished late Monday night, and Mailed it out Tuesday Morning... they said it should be there by today, but in order for me to confirm it it was the difference of $5, or $25... So I opted to take my chances.... now I'm wishing I would have had them get it there by today... oh well I saved some money, and the latest she will receive it will be tomorrow.


Anyway, I hope that first and foremost, she likes it, secondly I hope it fits (I think it should, I had a friend of about the same size put it on, and it fit her), thirdly, I hope it brings a smile to her face to thank her for all of the smiles she is endlessly bringing to me.

Thank you Laura for being such a wonderful friend. I hope you get to enjoy the birthday you deserve!

Birthday Week, Day 5

Tonight I am enjoying a relaxing evening with my kiddos. Sheila got to hang out on the couch with us for a while, and Charlie got a nice long walk! Now we are all just lounging.

Yesterday I worked, came home and walked the dog, and packed dinner, then went to job number 2 (I accepted a second job seasonally, and they asked me to stay on, and with my hours being cut at work, I agreed). Came home, and then I went to bed (after walking the spoiled dog again!).


Wednesday, I had split pea and ham soup cooking in the crock pot all day long, and when I got home, not only did I get to enjoy a great comforting meal, but I also got to open a package! It was a Christmas/Birthday box filled with goodies especially for me! I am the new owner of an awesome wine bottle plug thingie, that is hand carved, and has some sort of mechanism that allows you to screw it on so that you can lay the bottle flat without it spilling. (what are these things called?)
In addition to that I got an awesome key chain with a poodle, and a bunch of cute dog things on it.
Sheila got an awesome bed warmer thing, that will keep her warm, and all I have to do is microwave it for 30 seconds a few times a day. I think that ultimately I am going to try to get another one so that I can alternate between the two, we'll see how long it actually takes to find one and buy it.

My mom also made a felted stuffed Hedgie for me, and it is a giant compared to Sheila, but it is so cute! It is sitting on top of my entertainment center, and watching everything. Sheila hasn't seen it, but I'm sure she would approve!
Oh and I also received some knitting notions to add to my new knitting notions bag, that I didn't post about yet, but my mom did!

For my birthday I received 5, yes five, new charms for my charm bracelet! They are the cutest!! I now have, in addition to my birthstone, snowman, and hedgie; a cute sparkly pink bead, a dangling high heeled flip-flop, a very cute swirly heart, a paw print, and a way cute cupcake with pink icing, sprinkles, and a red cherry on top! I even wore it to work to show it off to anyone and everyone there!



Birthday week is the best. I made some cupcakes tonight, to bring with me tomorrow for knitting group, and some to bring to work on Monday. Tomorrow, I have knitting, then a few errands (I have to deliver a gift for a little girl I watch whose birthday is coming up next week!), and then getting all dolled up and going out to dinner and dancing with a girlfriend! Can't wait :)

Hope everyone is having a good week, birthday week or not!

Squawking Artichoke!

So, today is day one of my Birthday week! I have a few fun things planned throughout the week to make this birthday an overall success! Today I went grocery shopping after work so that I could make sure I had all of my favorite foods in the house for cooking with this week. Artichokes were on sale, and so I decided I would get one, as it turns out they have a decent shelf life (I've been told they will last for about a month.. wonder if I should refrigerate them?) so I decided to get 2. However, there were only three left in there spot (and of course they all looked pathetic), so I asked the produce guy if they had more, and he went to fetch a box of them and meet me at there spot. When he returned he asked if he could pick out a few good ones for me. I actually know how to pick out an artichoke (leaves tight together, and when you squish them they should be squeaky) but hey, if he wanted to pick them out for me why not! So I told him I would like two, and he started squeaking away. The first one was good, but it took a few more tries to find the second. After making all the artichokes squawk, I made my way through the store to get everything else that I needed, and then headed home to hang with the pets.

So, you will have to wait until tomorrow to see what tomorrow's birthday plans entail :) (Hopefully I will have pictures to go along with that post too!)

Happy Birthday Mrs...

Today is my best friend Heather's birthday, and she is recently a Mrs. In fact last month I went home to celebrate with her at the reception. (The wedding was in Hawaii, and although I was invited and would have love to have gone, I couldn't go.)

I wish I had a picture to show you from the event, but of course my camera battery died earlier that day at Mr. Jay's surprise party.. darn!



Heather, it is your day today, and you deserve the best. You have done so much with every aspect of your life. I am so glad to have known you for the past 15 years!

I love you, Happy Birthday!

I'm So Behind!

On Blogging that is. I have been very busy with holiday knitting, as well as the traditional holiday things, such as decorating, and getting prezzies ready to be mailed out.

So Now I have to tell you that last week I wasn't able to tell you about Sheila's 3rd Birthday! She is a very healthy girl, and happy to boot! And I am so happy that she has made it to her birthday this year. (there was a moment a few months ago I was horrified that we wouldn't be able to celebrate.) I had a big celebration for her! I thought she shouldn't have three blueberries in one night, blueberries are her treats. So instead of three in one night, I gave her one each night for three nights. And she ate them all! :)

My girl is a very happy hedgie, and I am a very happy lady to have her around! We sure enjoyed being able to celebrate her birthday.. Charlie thought it was very cool too! (He got a peak at what birthdays look like for the pets in my house!)

Bora Bora's Birthday!

That's right Miss Laura aka Bora Bora, is turning a quarter century old today! And as I love her very much she is getting a birthday post :)

When she wakes up this morning, she will have instructions via text message to read my blog, and then follow these directions:
1. Do NOT get dressed! Must stay in comfy clothes/PJ's
2. Grab your camera... your super fancy one.
3. Get into vehicle.
4. Drive to the Edmonds Bakery on main Street, just up from the Ferry Docks, near the fountain and the old fashioned movie theater..
5....find the surprise!
6. Take a picture of the surprise, so I can see how it turned out of cours! ;)
7. Drive to the waterfront, or any other place you love, and take beautiful pictures, as I know you enjoy doing this, and you are wonderful at it.
8. Enjoy the surprise, and feel my super stretch arms hugging you on your special birthday!
9. Report to me :)


Happy Birthday Laura! I am so lucky to have you in my life, you are a vital friend, and you are always putting everyone else first.. well today I want you to put you first, and go do something you really enjoy!



I love you very Much, happy 25th!

Patriotic Manicure

So this past weekend I had the house to myself because The Littles went with G & S to Washington DC. This was a birthday trip for Little Ann, she has been learning about the capitol this year in school, and for her birthday in Feb. she wanted to go.... they opted to wait until the weather was a little warmer before making the trip.

Also for miss A's Birthday, I gave her a gift certificate to get a manicure and pedicure... so last weekend, we had a girls afternoon, of lunch, mani's, and Pedi's... oh my!

It was really fun to hang out just the two of us! Paying homage to our country, and wanting to look festive for their trip, she did her nails in red, white and blue... and I did mine in a dark purple to match the outline of my foot tattoo. All in all it was a great girls day... and having the house to myself all weekend long, was extremely wonderful and relaxing boring and lonely.



Happy Munchkin Monday :)

Happy Birthday Pops!

Today is my dad's birthday! I would tell you how old, but for some reason I think i might get into trouble if I do. I think my parents are young but whatever...

Anyhow.. I did get to see my daddio this past weekend while I was home. And now he is older and wiser...or something like that.



Happy Birthday Dad!

Little Ann had a Birthday!

And she turned 8! Oh what a wonderful age :) She is becoming such a beautiful young lady, so smart (and thinks she's very wise and all knowing too).

Here is the bday card I mad for her:

Jello is dangerous!

My actual birthday was more of a recovery day, and my Friday night was the celebration! It was quite a lot of fun! And I didn't drink too much..I ate too much Jello!! Jello shots that is...so delicious, but sooo dangerous! Don't worry, I didn't eat all of them!



My friends were so great to all come out and celebrate! We had a delicious dinner at my favorite Mexican Restaurant, and then moved into the bar.. I got to wear the hat 3 times! I'm not exactly sure why they kept singing to me, but it was fun anyway, and everyone was buying my drinks and shots, and my dinner, so I got out without paying a dime! It was fun to go out for the night to celebrate with my friends, we all had a blast, and I really let loose! I never drink in excessive amounts, because I really don't enjoy the aftermath... but for my birthday, it was ok :)



Thank you for all of your birthday wishes! :D

The Sweetest Littles :)

So on Friday when Little Ann arrived home from school and Little Dan woke up from his nap, they decided that they wanted to bake me cookies for my birthday! And I wasn't allowed to help!!

Here they are mixing them all up, and then after they placed them on the cookie sheets, one batch with M&M's and one batch without. Little Dan and I like M&M's but the rest of the house is not partial to them.





What a sweet bunch of Munchkins :) Happy Munchkin Monday!

Its My Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to me! My friends and I went out last night to celebrate..and I should still be sleeping I didn't get home until 3! Sheesh...musta been quite the party :D
Just kidding! I remember it all, and I didn't over consume any beverages, I promise. lol



These pictures are both actually from a friends birthday party the last time I was home. And the lower picture is of me and my best friend eva...we've been friends for a million years...ok I guess its only been 15 years, but that's almost a million.
We were all appropriately wearing tiaras--so fun!

Anyhow, happy birthday to me, and a fabulous day to everyone else!

The Munchkins Celebrate Mother's Day

S hadn't planned anything for the kids to do for G for mothers day, so I decided I should come up with something so that she could be celebrated. I took the kids to this cute little shop called 'Hands On Pottery' ... If you couldn't tell by the name of the place, its a pottery studio where you can go and paint pre-made pottery. It is super cute! So they each made G something special!

Here is the start of Little Dan's Masterpiece:


Here is the start of Little Ann's Masterpiece:


They both did wonderful work! And were very well behaved while we were there (although that good behavior may have been as a result of bribery to earn cookies and cocoa)!




On a completely Separate Note: Happy Birthday to Blogfree (for now) Jessica!!!! She is wonderful and beautimous, and deserves to have a stupendous birthday! :) Have a good one Jess! This is a picture of her and her hubby at the Watertown Zoo in North New York!

So...Florida was pretty much amazing!

We arrived On Wednesday at 11-ish (pm). Laura came in from Seattle to meet me for my birthday! What a great gal!!! :) Anyhow our flights arrived within 10 minutes of each other, and we rented a car and head off to the hotel--which had a balcony and an amazing inner-coastal view!!. We figured that by the time we got to the hotel, we could quick primp and change out of airplane clothes, and head out for one drink. By the time we would get to the bar it would technically be my birthday so it would be a birthday drink and hang out a little, then off to bed. Well when we got to the bar, we discovered that they were open until 5 am! How frickin ridiculous is that!?!?! Who stays out drinking until 5 am? Not us don't worry... we left at 3:30 :)

Anyhow we were both still set on schedules... Laura's being West Coast time, and mine being to wake up and be to work at 7:30 every morning...So we woke up at 8. 4 hours of sleep...... that equals to cranky ladies!! Watch out..
We got ready to head out and went straight to the beach (after getting our morning coffee of course!). It was wonderful! The weather was in the 80's and the water temp was 70-75 somewhere, not to mention that the sand was the softest sand I have ever felt in my life... it felt like chinchilla fir! It was white and glorious, and the water was that turquoise-y blue.. which I wasn't expecting. But it was beyond gorgeous! So it was quite the relaxing morning... filled with all kinds of birthday love! if you haven't gotten the memo... it was my birthday and I love, love, love my birthday :D
Anyhow after enjoying the rays, we went off for lunch and to get ready to meet my grandpa and uncle for dinner. (oh and these are the dad's side relatives... not the grandpa that I used to go golfing with back home). For dinner we went to this place called the Okeechobe Steak House...... such a fun name to say Oh-key-cho-bee. Anyhow it was excellent food! In fact the food was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip! I had steak and lobster... mmmmm..
After dinner we went into the down-town area of West Palm Beach, where all of the quaint shops and restaurants are. We each had one martini at this place called the Blue martini, before heading home.... back in Boca Raton, we were going to try to find another place to go out to, but decided that after 4 hours of sleep we were both to cranky and tired to deal with it so we went home early (around midnight). Definitely up there on the list of great birthdays.. My golden birthday was pretty sweet too... :)

Friday we slept in so we were all caught up in that department, and we needed to catch up in the becoming tan department! We are soooo white!!! So off to the beach we went again.. and again we only stopped first to get our java! It was a very windy day, but it was perfect because the wind would blow the heat around, and so you felt just right! The water was a little more wild, so we didn't stay in it for long... also we noticed the dangerous aquatic life flag that was flying... later to lear that it was due to Jelly Fish and Man-O-Wars. Other beach-life included, the strangely well-behaved seagulls and the ridiculously orange leather people. Today we left the beach only to get subs and beverages and then to return to camp out some more.
When we actually came in, we decided we needed to find the local shopping.... we love to shop! (its sort of a problem... we've even developed a way to shop together cross country--picture messaging is a wonderful thing!) Surprisingly enough neither of us bought much. I bought some new flip flops b/c mine broke on the walk from the beach, and then we each got some cute clearance sweaters at AE. We had dinner at a place called McCormick & Schmicks..... it was sooo incredibly amazing, Oh yea....
I had the Atlantic Salmon, stuffed with Crab, Shrimp and Brie, and Laur had the swordfish with lumps of dungenous Crab on top. Again just an amazing meal.


Saturday we went out to spend the day with the family again. My uncle builds houses in West Palm. They range in selling price between 4-19 million dollars when they are done! Yowzahs! These were some pretty crazy mansions. This is just the maids suite at one of the houses. We were able to see 3 different houses. They were awesome.... Stuff like this really fascinates me too...I love to see different architecture of houses, ant then all of the details that go into them, and it is just obscene the extremities that these people go to. I'm talking, each bedroom had a full bathroom, a walk in closet, and a balcony! It was nuts! And I loved it! Then we went out to lunch with the relatives, and then back to Boca to get ready for our last night out.
We decided to go to this italian restaurant that night for dinner, and boy am I telling you, we found the most wonderful restaurants to dine at! They were all just scrumptious. And it was a really fun atmosphere, so we decided to go home and change into our night clothes... gotta be dressed up for the last night out, and then we returned to the same restaurant for drinks. It was fun... and within walking distance of our hotel.. even better!

Sunday, we woke up early and ordered room service. Then packed and loaded into the rental.... and of course we used our last hour of time to go to the beach one last time. Do you blame us.. it was such a fun time! And then it was back to real life :(

A great way to start off 2008 and my 22nd year! hooray!