It didn't stop Kevin from getting a Tim's coffee!
Hope you all have a nice WARM Sunday!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful!
We knew there was a Nor'Easter on the way and it arrived during the night. It's about -9 degrees and the snow is at about a foot so far with no signs of stopping yet. Makes for good sledding which we will do this afternoon. Right now we are enjoying family time (church was cancelled) then over to friend's for dinner and playing cards.
It didn't stop Kevin from getting a Tim's coffee!
Hope you all have a nice WARM Sunday!
It didn't stop Kevin from getting a Tim's coffee!
Hope you all have a nice WARM Sunday!
Why Did The Turkey Cross The Road?...
Because Janine was chasing them with her camera!
Yep, these are wild turkeys that we saw while on our way to a friend's house! There were 19 in all. Another first for the Gray's!
Only Kevin has seen moose since being here but I am always looking for one and then I can post that too. :)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Let it Snow!!!
Just came inside from sledding in the back yard. It started to snow around 2pm here and the kids always want to play after school. It's been a cold day here, thus we are 'dressed up like Eskimos'.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Our Newest Member!
Well, here's the newest member of our family!!!
She waves to us every time we leave the driveway or as they call it here 'door yard'. And yes, that is a Tim Horton's coffee cup in her hand! We haven't named her yet but she is fitting in quite well. The neighbors seem to enjoy seeing her too.
Here are some other 'signs' of winter around here:
This one is up year round - kind of funny seeing it in the summer!
And we know that Santa MUST be living closer than we thought! You just never know when you might see Rudolph! Most of the signs of deer around here have the red nose so....I'm sure you can come to your own conclusion. :)
Happy Sunday to all!
She waves to us every time we leave the driveway or as they call it here 'door yard'. And yes, that is a Tim Horton's coffee cup in her hand! We haven't named her yet but she is fitting in quite well. The neighbors seem to enjoy seeing her too.
Here are some other 'signs' of winter around here:
This one is up year round - kind of funny seeing it in the summer!
And we know that Santa MUST be living closer than we thought! You just never know when you might see Rudolph! Most of the signs of deer around here have the red nose so....I'm sure you can come to your own conclusion. :)
Happy Sunday to all!
Monday, December 3, 2007
When Life Gives You Snow, Go Sledding!
Yep, we finally have the white stuff and today is the first of many 'snowdays'. So, no school and all play! We got together with Hannah and Eoin from next door to play, sled and build snow forts! Good times! The moms stayed inside where it's warm and the coffee was brewing!
Alex up in the 'real' fort
Chelsie, Hannah and Eoin
Hope you all have a fun 'snowday'!
Alex up in the 'real' fort
Chelsie, Hannah and Eoin
Hope you all have a fun 'snowday'!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Merry Christmas from the Gray's
Well, I'm sure some of you did a double take when you saw the return address of the Gray's! Yes, you read correctly. We now live on the East Coast of the United States! We didn't realize how BIG Maine was until we got here. It is beautiful, with obviously a lot of history. We live in a town south of Portland called Cape Elizabeth. If you have Goggle Earth, you could type in our address and see exactly where we are.
To say that this year has been full, is definitely an understatement!! Last year's letter told you that we were considering a move to the States to get more help for Alex. At the time of that letter, Kevin was on his way back from Portland, Maine and the final interview process within SimplexGrinnell. He was to take on a Management position here. We decided, after prayer and too many things falling into place, that this was where God was sending us. We figured it would take awhile for everything to fall into place, from the legal and immigration side of things. But NO! Kevin arrived home around the 10th of December last year and by the 15th of January, he was here! The work visa and all other documents were done with 3 weeks!! Over Christmas and New Year's! Amazing! He has done very well with all the differences between Canada and the States and West to East! I'm so proud of his ability to soak in all this information and make a huge difference here!
We decided to keep our townhouse in Cloverdale and rent it out. We have a property manager that is great and looking after that angle of things. Then we had to find a place to rent here. First we had to do research as to the best school district to help Alex. Our consultant in Vancouver, had grown up in Maine and we asked her and her Mom to look into things for us. Cape Elizabeth was one of two places that would best suit our situation. Cape was also closer to Kevin's workplace.
So after packing our house again - two times in two year's! (not recommended), arranging movers and flights, school registration and transferring a whole raft of documents!, Janine, Chelsie and Alex flew in to start our life with Daddy on the East Coast! Even though we missed our connecting flight in Chicago, we made it! For those of you on the West Coast, you'll remember that we had snow in November and December of 2006 and that was it. So Janine was DONE with winter right? Yeah, NO! We landed to snow and started all over again!! The kids loved it and the day after we arrived, we went to Fort Williams to go sledding!
Snow came and went for awhile, right through April. Then we got to experience the 5th season around here known as MUD! Lots of fun! This next picture was taken right outside our door. We also now know the meaning of 'Snowday' - which means no school.
We had been here for two weeks when we brought our consultant from Vancouver here to help Janine with the transition of Alex into this school. Again, God walked before us and prepared all these things. Apparently, here in the States, no child with special needs may enter the school system without having an IEP (Individual Education Plan) in place. Different from Canada in that, the child may go to school until the paperwork catches up to them. We were told that this process here could take up to three months! Katie (our consultant) did more footwork for us and pretty much bypassed much of the red tape and got us fixed up for the start of March! God's provision! We were also NOT expecting to get THIS much help!!! Alex has someone with him all day (this fall, it's two people during the day). He has a Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Speech Therapist, Social Worker, Program Coordinator, etc... not to mention a regular classroom setting where the kids love him as he is. I can't explain the relief in knowing that he is getting what he needs all day! The stress level has been cut down significantly!
Chelsie settled into school quite quickly and made many new little friends. She has been on more playdates than ever before! She was even interviewed for the school newspaper as the new kid from Canada! This fall, the kids started taking the school bus (they LOVE it!) and consequently, we have met more of our neighbors around here. Alex had a harder time transitioning to a new way of doing things and a new environment. The school works hard to meet all our needs. He ended up going to summer school/day camp everyday and that helped with the transitions too. So much so, that this fall, he ASKS for school every morning - including the weekends!
April brought lots of things our way. We had been figuring things out here - very different from the lower Mainland and Canada, for that matter, when we had a 'Nor'easter' blow through. Wow! The Patriot's Day Storm of 2007 will be remembered by the Gray's as the day that the tree fell on the house we are renting!!!
Never a dull moment! The power had gone out that morning and the kids were on the main level with Janine as the tree hit. A blessing that Alex wasn't upstairs in his room playing as that is exactly where the tree landed! We stayed in a hotel that night. Mommy was a nervous wreck for a couple days! But we came through it all!
This summer brought lots of activities: Chelsie went to Jewish Day Camp for two weeks with one of her new friends, Alex had school and Day Camp too. Summer also brought visitors! Gwen Scott and Marg Gray! It was fun to show the 'Moms' around our new found places. We travelled down to Boston, Cape Cod, Kittery, Kennebunkport, Freeport, and downtown Portland. One of our favorite things to do is go down the beach. We usually go to Fort Williams where the Portland Headlight is located. (Lighthouses are called Headlights on the East Coast.)
The following was down at Cape Cod, Maasachusetts. The water was SO warm, unusual for the Atlantic Ocean! We love to collect seashells and beach glass.
This summer took us back to Vancouver for three weeks. It was awesome to see family and friends! You don't know how much you miss them until they aren't within arms-length!
The Gray's, the Jones' and the Scott's
Chelsie and Sydney Gray
We came back to start school and time seems to have flown by since then. We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, Halloween and American Thanksgiving. We have had fun experiencing picking apples and in the spring, we want to try Maple Tree Tapping (syrup making).
Last night we decorated our Christmas Tree and so the season to remember the birth of our Lord begins.
Well, that's us for this year! We would love to hear from you all! Our e-mail address is: liven4lobstah@maine.rr.com
Love to all and may God bless you each richly in this coming year.
**The wonder of Christmas is not in the presents but in HIS presence.**
Kevin, Janine, Chelsie and Alex
To say that this year has been full, is definitely an understatement!! Last year's letter told you that we were considering a move to the States to get more help for Alex. At the time of that letter, Kevin was on his way back from Portland, Maine and the final interview process within SimplexGrinnell. He was to take on a Management position here. We decided, after prayer and too many things falling into place, that this was where God was sending us. We figured it would take awhile for everything to fall into place, from the legal and immigration side of things. But NO! Kevin arrived home around the 10th of December last year and by the 15th of January, he was here! The work visa and all other documents were done with 3 weeks!! Over Christmas and New Year's! Amazing! He has done very well with all the differences between Canada and the States and West to East! I'm so proud of his ability to soak in all this information and make a huge difference here!
We decided to keep our townhouse in Cloverdale and rent it out. We have a property manager that is great and looking after that angle of things. Then we had to find a place to rent here. First we had to do research as to the best school district to help Alex. Our consultant in Vancouver, had grown up in Maine and we asked her and her Mom to look into things for us. Cape Elizabeth was one of two places that would best suit our situation. Cape was also closer to Kevin's workplace.
So after packing our house again - two times in two year's! (not recommended), arranging movers and flights, school registration and transferring a whole raft of documents!, Janine, Chelsie and Alex flew in to start our life with Daddy on the East Coast! Even though we missed our connecting flight in Chicago, we made it! For those of you on the West Coast, you'll remember that we had snow in November and December of 2006 and that was it. So Janine was DONE with winter right? Yeah, NO! We landed to snow and started all over again!! The kids loved it and the day after we arrived, we went to Fort Williams to go sledding!
Snow came and went for awhile, right through April. Then we got to experience the 5th season around here known as MUD! Lots of fun! This next picture was taken right outside our door. We also now know the meaning of 'Snowday' - which means no school.
We had been here for two weeks when we brought our consultant from Vancouver here to help Janine with the transition of Alex into this school. Again, God walked before us and prepared all these things. Apparently, here in the States, no child with special needs may enter the school system without having an IEP (Individual Education Plan) in place. Different from Canada in that, the child may go to school until the paperwork catches up to them. We were told that this process here could take up to three months! Katie (our consultant) did more footwork for us and pretty much bypassed much of the red tape and got us fixed up for the start of March! God's provision! We were also NOT expecting to get THIS much help!!! Alex has someone with him all day (this fall, it's two people during the day). He has a Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Speech Therapist, Social Worker, Program Coordinator, etc... not to mention a regular classroom setting where the kids love him as he is. I can't explain the relief in knowing that he is getting what he needs all day! The stress level has been cut down significantly!
Chelsie settled into school quite quickly and made many new little friends. She has been on more playdates than ever before! She was even interviewed for the school newspaper as the new kid from Canada! This fall, the kids started taking the school bus (they LOVE it!) and consequently, we have met more of our neighbors around here. Alex had a harder time transitioning to a new way of doing things and a new environment. The school works hard to meet all our needs. He ended up going to summer school/day camp everyday and that helped with the transitions too. So much so, that this fall, he ASKS for school every morning - including the weekends!
April brought lots of things our way. We had been figuring things out here - very different from the lower Mainland and Canada, for that matter, when we had a 'Nor'easter' blow through. Wow! The Patriot's Day Storm of 2007 will be remembered by the Gray's as the day that the tree fell on the house we are renting!!!
Never a dull moment! The power had gone out that morning and the kids were on the main level with Janine as the tree hit. A blessing that Alex wasn't upstairs in his room playing as that is exactly where the tree landed! We stayed in a hotel that night. Mommy was a nervous wreck for a couple days! But we came through it all!
This summer brought lots of activities: Chelsie went to Jewish Day Camp for two weeks with one of her new friends, Alex had school and Day Camp too. Summer also brought visitors! Gwen Scott and Marg Gray! It was fun to show the 'Moms' around our new found places. We travelled down to Boston, Cape Cod, Kittery, Kennebunkport, Freeport, and downtown Portland. One of our favorite things to do is go down the beach. We usually go to Fort Williams where the Portland Headlight is located. (Lighthouses are called Headlights on the East Coast.)
The following was down at Cape Cod, Maasachusetts. The water was SO warm, unusual for the Atlantic Ocean! We love to collect seashells and beach glass.
This summer took us back to Vancouver for three weeks. It was awesome to see family and friends! You don't know how much you miss them until they aren't within arms-length!
The Gray's, the Jones' and the Scott's
Chelsie and Sydney Gray
We came back to start school and time seems to have flown by since then. We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, Halloween and American Thanksgiving. We have had fun experiencing picking apples and in the spring, we want to try Maple Tree Tapping (syrup making).
Last night we decorated our Christmas Tree and so the season to remember the birth of our Lord begins.
Well, that's us for this year! We would love to hear from you all! Our e-mail address is: liven4lobstah@maine.rr.com
Love to all and may God bless you each richly in this coming year.
**The wonder of Christmas is not in the presents but in HIS presence.**
Kevin, Janine, Chelsie and Alex
Friday, November 30, 2007
I'll Have A BLUE Christmas
...or should I say 'blue' poinsettia. Okay, this was a first for me. But going to the nursery at this time of year is beautiful.
Christmas letter 2007 coming tomorrow.
J
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Christmas Letter Coming Soon!!
For those of you who has received our Christmas card this year....the Christmas letter will be posted on December 1. I need some way of making you come back to this site. :)
J
J
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Seatbelts Everyone!
We have had a big break through this weekend!!! Alex has learned how to fasten his own seatbelt! I know this may seem like a small thing but not for us!!!!!! We have been working on this one for awhile and we have arrived! Thought I'd share....
We also saw Disney's "Enchanted". What a great movie. A combination of a few Disney classics with a new twist. A fantastic feel good movie for all. We had fun - the music was toe tappin' and the acting was fun.
Kevin and I are heading out on a 'date' tonight. :) Dinner and some shopping. It'll be good just the two of us.
Hope you all had a great weekend.
We also saw Disney's "Enchanted". What a great movie. A combination of a few Disney classics with a new twist. A fantastic feel good movie for all. We had fun - the music was toe tappin' and the acting was fun.
Kevin and I are heading out on a 'date' tonight. :) Dinner and some shopping. It'll be good just the two of us.
Hope you all had a great weekend.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Happy Day After Thanksgiving
We have officially celebrated our first American Thanksgiving! We went over to Troy and Deb's house for dinner, Hannah and Eoin (pronounced Owen) are their kids. Deb's sister Kathleen was there too. Yummy food, great company, good conversation and excellent time relaxing and playing cards. Kevin even played! For those of you who have tried to get Kevin to play cards before...this is astonishing!!
Eoin and Alex
Hannah and Chelsie
Kathleen, Troy and Deb
Kevin and Janine
It's great getting to know more people in our neighborhood.
Today we decided to go for a drive and ended up driving through Chelsea, Maine. There are a few places around the New England States with the name Chelsea. But we always notice that it is spelled INCORRECTLY! :) Chelsie is now blessed with how her mother feels about her name being spelled incorrectly. It's become a game to see how many different ways our names can be spelled. We have to look at the bright side of things! We have just been relaxing the rest of the day - it's nice having Kevin home too.
Happy weekend to all!
Eoin and Alex
Hannah and Chelsie
Kathleen, Troy and Deb
Kevin and Janine
It's great getting to know more people in our neighborhood.
Today we decided to go for a drive and ended up driving through Chelsea, Maine. There are a few places around the New England States with the name Chelsea. But we always notice that it is spelled INCORRECTLY! :) Chelsie is now blessed with how her mother feels about her name being spelled incorrectly. It's become a game to see how many different ways our names can be spelled. We have to look at the bright side of things! We have just been relaxing the rest of the day - it's nice having Kevin home too.
Happy weekend to all!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Baby - It's Cold Outside!!!!
It's SNOWING!!!!! This is our first taste of what's to come! The Kids are happy - Momma, not so happy. Oh well, this is where we live! And we have all our gear, so we are good to go. We have this week off school as it's American Thanksgiving on Thursday. We are going to our friends house for the traditional meal. I'm sure we will have a good time.
I made it back from the Pacific Northwest, obviously. I had a wonderful time catching up with Ricki, Sara, Nancy and Wendy. What a blessing to have such incredible friends! I love these girls! We ate, shopped, talked and drank some wine, ate some more and shopped, talked, etc... It was a full weekend but definitely worth the travel time to Seattle and back. As Sara said, we have to start planning next year already. Gig Harbor has been built up more in the last year, so we had a lot to see. The weather was great - the day I left a big storm was rolling in but gave us a tailwind of 160 MPH!!! We made up for lost time!
Always good to come home though. I thought about that on the way back - six and a half hours to think - home is where your family is. Even though we are on the other side of the continent, this is where my little family is. Vancouver will probably always be home but right now, we are enjoying our lives here too. It's good to come to this conclusion.
Have an awesome day in 'no snow'!
I made it back from the Pacific Northwest, obviously. I had a wonderful time catching up with Ricki, Sara, Nancy and Wendy. What a blessing to have such incredible friends! I love these girls! We ate, shopped, talked and drank some wine, ate some more and shopped, talked, etc... It was a full weekend but definitely worth the travel time to Seattle and back. As Sara said, we have to start planning next year already. Gig Harbor has been built up more in the last year, so we had a lot to see. The weather was great - the day I left a big storm was rolling in but gave us a tailwind of 160 MPH!!! We made up for lost time!
Always good to come home though. I thought about that on the way back - six and a half hours to think - home is where your family is. Even though we are on the other side of the continent, this is where my little family is. Vancouver will probably always be home but right now, we are enjoying our lives here too. It's good to come to this conclusion.
Have an awesome day in 'no snow'!
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Halloween - Come and Gone
We have had a busy week with getting ready for Halloween as I'm sure some of you can understand. We were given a couple pumpkins but only one got carved. Chelsie decided that we should have a 'happy' pumpkin so here he is.
And then the costumes: Alex was Mr. Incredible and Chelsie was Lola from Disney's Hannah Montana. Yes, those are Tim Horton's treat bags. Nice to have something familiar around.
We now know the route for treat-or-treating. Alex was literally dragging his feet at the end of the trek. But we made it. :)
We are headed up to L.L.Bean to get 'outfitted' for the fast approaching winter season. We have our boots but all of us need jackets and the kids will get snow pants. You can 'feel' it in the air - those of you that have lived on the prairies, know what I mean. And apparently we have a hurricane on it's way too! I say 'Bring it on!!'- as soon as we get our jackets!!!! :)
Here's what we have been enjoying though ...
Spring Light Point, South Portland, Maine on my morning walk
Enjoying a warmer afternoon at Willard Beach, South Portland
'Periwinkles' - Empty Hermit Crab Shells
This picture reminds me of when I lived on Fox Island, Washington. You could not walk without stepping on sand dollars. Here it's these! They are everywhere on this beach! Chelsie and I found one that was still inhabited! Cool!
Speaking of Washington, I'm flying to Seattle on Thursday this coming week to catch up with Sara, Rickie, Deanna, Nancy and Wendy!! Should be fun! I'll let you know when I get back. Hopefully I won't need my 'Maine' jacket there!!! :)
J
And then the costumes: Alex was Mr. Incredible and Chelsie was Lola from Disney's Hannah Montana. Yes, those are Tim Horton's treat bags. Nice to have something familiar around.
We now know the route for treat-or-treating. Alex was literally dragging his feet at the end of the trek. But we made it. :)
We are headed up to L.L.Bean to get 'outfitted' for the fast approaching winter season. We have our boots but all of us need jackets and the kids will get snow pants. You can 'feel' it in the air - those of you that have lived on the prairies, know what I mean. And apparently we have a hurricane on it's way too! I say 'Bring it on!!'- as soon as we get our jackets!!!! :)
Here's what we have been enjoying though ...
Spring Light Point, South Portland, Maine on my morning walk
Enjoying a warmer afternoon at Willard Beach, South Portland
'Periwinkles' - Empty Hermit Crab Shells
This picture reminds me of when I lived on Fox Island, Washington. You could not walk without stepping on sand dollars. Here it's these! They are everywhere on this beach! Chelsie and I found one that was still inhabited! Cool!
Speaking of Washington, I'm flying to Seattle on Thursday this coming week to catch up with Sara, Rickie, Deanna, Nancy and Wendy!! Should be fun! I'll let you know when I get back. Hopefully I won't need my 'Maine' jacket there!!! :)
J
Monday, October 22, 2007
It's Beautiful Here!
My pictures are numerous of all these gorgeous trees. The weather is amazing - apparently unusually warm for this time of the year. Take heart, it's supposed to change by the end of this week. After school today, Chelsie, Alex and I went down to the beach to enjoy the weather and the scenery. Alex was right in the 'drink' and having a blast. We've got a pretty good collection going of seashells too.
We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with a small roast chicken instead of a turkey - I'm saving that for Christmas.
We went picking apples this past Saturday. It didn't take long to get what we wanted but we had fun doing it. Both the kids were into getting their bags filled. Now I am looking through all my recipes for apples! Yum!!
The end of this week is school reports/teacher conferences. Should be interesting. Also means no school so hopefully the weather will hold out for a little while longer.
Well, the kids are getting ready for bed so....
Talk to you all again soon.
J
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Fall has Arrived!
We went on one of our 'ventures' today. We drove to New Hampshire's White Mountain State Park. We wanted to see all the changing leaves and we were NOT disappointed! Never have I seen so much color!! Vibrant reds, oranges, yellows and greens. Awe inspiring! God is amazing! :) Like He got out His paints and had a go at the hillsides! Cool!!!
I took lots of pictures but like anything else, it just doesn't do it justice. I'm still trying to figure out the pic thing. Working on it. :)
We took a picnic lunch as we are experiencing above average tempuratures here ( up to 86 degrees at one point today!) We'll take it!! We drove through Paris and Poland but best of all, we drove through Gray, Maine. We almost went to Mexico but we decided we had been around the world enough for one day. :)
Once we got back home, the kids wanted to make the leaves off of the trees here into a pile and jump. What fun! Who needs toys when you have nature?
Now it's time to eat some pizza and watch a movie with the kids.
Hope you all had a great day!
I took lots of pictures but like anything else, it just doesn't do it justice. I'm still trying to figure out the pic thing. Working on it. :)
We took a picnic lunch as we are experiencing above average tempuratures here ( up to 86 degrees at one point today!) We'll take it!! We drove through Paris and Poland but best of all, we drove through Gray, Maine. We almost went to Mexico but we decided we had been around the world enough for one day. :)
Once we got back home, the kids wanted to make the leaves off of the trees here into a pile and jump. What fun! Who needs toys when you have nature?
Now it's time to eat some pizza and watch a movie with the kids.
Hope you all had a great day!
Monday, October 1, 2007
YES! We are ALIVE!!
For all of you out there that have lost faith in this blogger (referring to Janine), we are alive and kicking! I apologize that there has been a lack of communication but, as usual, I'm trying to rectify that. :)
We arrived back here in time to start school. Chelsie is in Grade 3 and Alex is in Grade 2. Both of them have settled back into the scheme of things without any major hitches. They take the bus every day and both enjoy it very much. I'm afraid that if we ever missed the bus, Mommy would be in BIG trouble. :) We had an IEP meeting this morning in regards to Alex's programming and things are going better than expected. And we are going to start a 'food' program soon. YEAH! This means that Alex will be introduced to foods that he doesn't eat presently - which is A LOT!!!
Kevin was able to finish out this fiscal year at Simplex on a strong note. I'm very proud of everything that he takes on. Today is the official start of the new fiscal year, so we are hoping for good things this coming year.
As for me...I keep myself busy keeping things going around here. I have met quite a few people (adults) at the bus stop than I met the whole other 5 months that I drove the kids to school in the Spring! Exciting for me!
Fall has definitely arrived. The leaves are changing color - they are beautiful. I'll attach pics as soon as I can figure it out again. :(
Well, I WILL type again soon. Hope that you all have a great day.
We arrived back here in time to start school. Chelsie is in Grade 3 and Alex is in Grade 2. Both of them have settled back into the scheme of things without any major hitches. They take the bus every day and both enjoy it very much. I'm afraid that if we ever missed the bus, Mommy would be in BIG trouble. :) We had an IEP meeting this morning in regards to Alex's programming and things are going better than expected. And we are going to start a 'food' program soon. YEAH! This means that Alex will be introduced to foods that he doesn't eat presently - which is A LOT!!!
Kevin was able to finish out this fiscal year at Simplex on a strong note. I'm very proud of everything that he takes on. Today is the official start of the new fiscal year, so we are hoping for good things this coming year.
As for me...I keep myself busy keeping things going around here. I have met quite a few people (adults) at the bus stop than I met the whole other 5 months that I drove the kids to school in the Spring! Exciting for me!
Fall has definitely arrived. The leaves are changing color - they are beautiful. I'll attach pics as soon as I can figure it out again. :(
Well, I WILL type again soon. Hope that you all have a great day.
Friday, July 20, 2007
I'm BACK!!! :)
Okay Okay....man time flies!!! Too much happens around here but I know 'I'm preaching to the choir' :)
Lesson for today....lock AWAY all medicines/vitamins,etc...as even if it says 'Child-proof Lid' THIS MEANS NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!! Alex got into the kids multi-vitamins and about half the bottle was GONE! Yep, the one with the 'Child-proof Lid'! I now have the phone number for Poison Control in New England and I will put it in a safe place. :) Alex is fine and there have been no side-effects detected.
Another new rule here is: no matter the weather at the time of exiting the truck, ALWAYS...I mean ALWAYS close the sunroof. This past Sunday, we stopped at McDonald's when a big thundercloud rolled in and the heavens opened. Yep, you guessed it! We sat there watching the kids play and the rain come POURING down when I commented to Kevin that the last time this happened I was in Wal-Mart. They announced over the PA system that it was raining and if your windows are open, you'd better close them. Just then, we looked at each other and started laughing realizing that we had just done the same thing!! I kid you not, there was at least an inch and a half of water in the cup holders and everything was soaked! I've done about 5 loads of towels this week as they were all used to dry out the truck! Oh fun times! :)
One of the sayings around Maine that seems to be true...if you don't like the weather, give it a minute, it'll change.
Well, Marg was here for three weeks and we had a good time showing her all that we have discovered so far. We went shopping, of course :), day trips to Boston, went to Harvard and ate lunch at 'Mr. Bartley's' (the BEST burgers in the world), Kittery (outlet stores) and Freeport (L.L.Bean), and to the beach and lighthouses (known as HEADLIGHTS here).
July 4th was celebrated in style with our own 'sparklers' - we didn't try to find fireworks as it ended up raining that evening.
I wanted to send out belated birthday hellos to Wendy, Camille and Laurilie!!! :) And a BIG Birthday WELCOME to Taylor Gray - Dave and Natalie's newest member! She was born on the 15th and I'm sure she's just as cute as little miss Sydney! We can't wait to meet her!
Speaking of "can't wait" - we are all very excited to come home and see as many people as possible. Just to be around familiar faces and places again will be great. But before we come home, my Mom - Gwen - will be coming to check things out here and then she will fly to Vancouver with me and the kids. Kevin will come a week and a half later.
Good night to all. We are off on another 'venture' tomorrow. Never sure where we'll end up. :)
Love,
Janine
Lesson for today....lock AWAY all medicines/vitamins,etc...as even if it says 'Child-proof Lid' THIS MEANS NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!! Alex got into the kids multi-vitamins and about half the bottle was GONE! Yep, the one with the 'Child-proof Lid'! I now have the phone number for Poison Control in New England and I will put it in a safe place. :) Alex is fine and there have been no side-effects detected.
Another new rule here is: no matter the weather at the time of exiting the truck, ALWAYS...I mean ALWAYS close the sunroof. This past Sunday, we stopped at McDonald's when a big thundercloud rolled in and the heavens opened. Yep, you guessed it! We sat there watching the kids play and the rain come POURING down when I commented to Kevin that the last time this happened I was in Wal-Mart. They announced over the PA system that it was raining and if your windows are open, you'd better close them. Just then, we looked at each other and started laughing realizing that we had just done the same thing!! I kid you not, there was at least an inch and a half of water in the cup holders and everything was soaked! I've done about 5 loads of towels this week as they were all used to dry out the truck! Oh fun times! :)
One of the sayings around Maine that seems to be true...if you don't like the weather, give it a minute, it'll change.
Well, Marg was here for three weeks and we had a good time showing her all that we have discovered so far. We went shopping, of course :), day trips to Boston, went to Harvard and ate lunch at 'Mr. Bartley's' (the BEST burgers in the world), Kittery (outlet stores) and Freeport (L.L.Bean), and to the beach and lighthouses (known as HEADLIGHTS here).
July 4th was celebrated in style with our own 'sparklers' - we didn't try to find fireworks as it ended up raining that evening.
I wanted to send out belated birthday hellos to Wendy, Camille and Laurilie!!! :) And a BIG Birthday WELCOME to Taylor Gray - Dave and Natalie's newest member! She was born on the 15th and I'm sure she's just as cute as little miss Sydney! We can't wait to meet her!
Speaking of "can't wait" - we are all very excited to come home and see as many people as possible. Just to be around familiar faces and places again will be great. But before we come home, my Mom - Gwen - will be coming to check things out here and then she will fly to Vancouver with me and the kids. Kevin will come a week and a half later.
Good night to all. We are off on another 'venture' tomorrow. Never sure where we'll end up. :)
Love,
Janine
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Grandma is HERE!!!
Good morning! Another beautiful - HOT - day here. Summer has arrived! Yeah!!!! :)
The cable guy (literally) was here to fix the internet and phone problem this morning so I should be able to talk/type to my hearts content.
Grandma Marg arrived last night (or should I say early this morning) at 1 am as her flight out of Detroit was delayed. But she made it in one piece and now we can give her the grand tour of greater Portland, Maine. It's great to see a familiar face. We're going to have fun! :)
Here are some pictures of our time here.
Augusta, Maine is the State capital, about an hour drive from where we live.
We have gone down to Plymouth, Massachusetts a couple times. The rock inscribed '1620' is what is left of the actual place where the Mayflower landed. The picture of the ship is the Mayflower II.
Well, we are off on a 'venture' - our term for adventure. I'll let you know how we did later.
Have a great day!
J
The cable guy (literally) was here to fix the internet and phone problem this morning so I should be able to talk/type to my hearts content.
Grandma Marg arrived last night (or should I say early this morning) at 1 am as her flight out of Detroit was delayed. But she made it in one piece and now we can give her the grand tour of greater Portland, Maine. It's great to see a familiar face. We're going to have fun! :)
Here are some pictures of our time here.
Augusta, Maine is the State capital, about an hour drive from where we live.
We have gone down to Plymouth, Massachusetts a couple times. The rock inscribed '1620' is what is left of the actual place where the Mayflower landed. The picture of the ship is the Mayflower II.
Well, we are off on a 'venture' - our term for adventure. I'll let you know how we did later.
Have a great day!
J
Monday, June 18, 2007
Last Day of School
Well, this is it! The kids have a half day of school and then summer break! Wow! Time flies! And Grandma Marg arrives tonight. We are all looking forward to seeing a familiar face.
I'll post more pictures later today - trying to 'catch up' on the activities so far.
Have a great day!
J
I'll post more pictures later today - trying to 'catch up' on the activities so far.
Have a great day!
J
Sunday, June 17, 2007
'Tis the season for Sneezin'
June 17/07
Happy Father's Day to all you Dad's out there! We have had a beautiful day here - except the thunderstorm and quick rain shower that we had to run out of! :) All part of the fun! The kids got Kevin a big flying 'disc' and we went to the park to break it in. A huge, dark cloud rolled in and the rain was pouring! We made a run for the truck - killing ourselves laughing all the way and then to realize that we had left the sunroof open!! :0 Never a dull moment! A memory for sure.
Adding pictures to a blog is for the well informed: i.e: NOT US! No small feat as I discovered but now possible because of my fabulous husbands technical abilities! I wanted to share pictures of our time here so far. The picture that was added to the first blog post is of a shack not far from the President Bush Sr. compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
Pictures to follow are: 1) all the pollen on the ground - NEVER have I seen this much pollen on EVERYTHING!! In the picture it looks like dust but everything is yellow.
The next picture is of President Bush Sr. compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. They have had this retreat for a long time and Katie's (our consultant from Vancouver)'Nana' used to be their nanny whenever they came to Maine. Cool!
Okay, let's see if this will work with posting more than one photo.
J
Happy Father's Day to all you Dad's out there! We have had a beautiful day here - except the thunderstorm and quick rain shower that we had to run out of! :) All part of the fun! The kids got Kevin a big flying 'disc' and we went to the park to break it in. A huge, dark cloud rolled in and the rain was pouring! We made a run for the truck - killing ourselves laughing all the way and then to realize that we had left the sunroof open!! :0 Never a dull moment! A memory for sure.
Adding pictures to a blog is for the well informed: i.e: NOT US! No small feat as I discovered but now possible because of my fabulous husbands technical abilities! I wanted to share pictures of our time here so far. The picture that was added to the first blog post is of a shack not far from the President Bush Sr. compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
Pictures to follow are: 1) all the pollen on the ground - NEVER have I seen this much pollen on EVERYTHING!! In the picture it looks like dust but everything is yellow.
The next picture is of President Bush Sr. compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. They have had this retreat for a long time and Katie's (our consultant from Vancouver)'Nana' used to be their nanny whenever they came to Maine. Cool!
Okay, let's see if this will work with posting more than one photo.
J
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Just the Beginning
Well, I finally did it!!! I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog and here it is! I'm so excited!
We have been here in Maine for 3 1/2 months now - still getting used to all the differences between North and South, West to East. Sometimes we feel like fish - or should I say 'lobstah' - out of water. But slowly, we are becoming acclimatized.
We have been making the most of our weekends - going on day or overnight trips around our state and the ajoining ones. So far we have been to New Hampshire - Storyland in N. Conway and Nashua, Vermont - for dinner and to say that we've been there :) and Massachusetts - Boston and Cape Cod...all the way to Provincetown. Check these out on Google Earth. http://googleearth.com
The kids are doing well in school and enjoy their new friends. This is our last week of school and then into the summer daycamps - big thing here. It will also be Alex's first experience with taking the bus to school everyday. Should be interesting. Chelsie is signed up for three weeks of swimming lessons and then a two week day camp at Sebago Lake.
We will be coming home in August for about three weeks. We have starting putting to gether a 'wish list' of things that we want to do/places to go. But the biggest thing is to be able to visit with our family and friends! We miss you all very much - hopefully this blog will facilitate more with 'keeping up' with everyone.
Please feel free to comment, send us a line or two, even to say 'Hey'.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
