3 Cute Kids

We are throwing my dad a birthday party in a few weeks. He has never wanted a party since his 40th birthday. My mom threw him a wake and everyone came in black. Someone brought him a rubber tree as a present with condoms on it. This is the thing one remembers when one was 7 or so.

This party is going to be a bit more upbeat. We have been looking at old pictures to create some sort of a "this is your life" situation. The pictures have been hysterical for the most part. Then there are pictures like this that make me a little bit nostalgic.

This is my brother Tom, my sister Karen and me in front of our summer house in Ogunquit, Maine. I am guessing 4, 5, 10. Why are my brother and sister in their pjs? I do remember loving that owl shirt. This was our house before we added on my bedroom downstairs and way before the field behind us was filled with houses. We would play Capture the Flag on that field with the whole neighborhood. In our yard, we would play Kick the Can.

I love that we have similar haircuts. That my sister looks like the most outgoing out of all of us and still is. And that I look like I would rather crawl under a rock than have to be the focus of a picture. My parents trained us well, however, and whenever we saw the camera come out, we smiled and posed. I am sure that there will be a few more pictures along these lines.

I can't resist, we were awfully cute.

Maine: The Way Life Should Be

Um, excuse me.... I am looking for the month of August...has anyone seen it?

Well, I know where the past 5 days went. We took an interesting combined family/friend/old friends vacation to Maine. In a nutshell, I just spent the last 4 days with 3 teenage boys and my teenage daughter. And another almost teenage boy. And of course, my boy friend.

Let's just say my nose has been attacked by smells of dirty feet and farts.

My ears have been attacked by the f bomb and a few other statements I overheard, but probably shouldn't have.

My sight has been compromised by watching teens twerk anywhere they could.

What did I learn?

1. B and I were smart to go to Freeport a day ahead and meet up for a girls day with my roommate from college and her girls. We shopped, ate and talked and talked.

2. Old friends are priceless. We met up with our boy crowd Saturday morning in Wells and headed to Ogunquit for the day. We parked at "Grandma's" house. She was the neighborhood grandma in our summer neighborhood and at a spry 96 year old, she still is. We went to the beach with my sister and our friend Jill and little R. We also went with one of the boys we used to play with every single day of the summer and his family. Yes, somehow we tend to grow up, but the ease and joy of hanging out together just like the old days lives on.

3. Meeting my "boyfriend's" family is not as scary as I made it out in my mind to be. I felt like a teenager again being brought around to meet the family :) I think I passed the test so far.

4. B is a good sport and up for anything.

5. When you joke with the kids and tell them to "be gangsta like" and you think the little sign they are making is hearts, it's not.

6. Making new memories in old places is the greatest gift.





I put boyfriend in quotes, because it seems like such a funny word for older (um, more mature) people. Manfriend just doesn't have the same ring.

The Day After Jumping Rope....

The other half of my weekend, consisted of lots of shopping in stores where the music was too loud and obnoxious (Yes, I am becoming my mother). However, we did take a little tour up to my favorite beach and town in the world, Ogunquit, ME.

It was a beautiful day and tons of people were out walking the beach.

We frolicked...

Made a quick dribble castle...

B pried my camera out of my hands to get a rare picture of me.... (I was the only brave one to put my feet in the water, by the way. It was probably a balmy 45 degrees and it took my feet a day and a half to warm back up.)

Barnacle Billy's is the summer spot to have dinner and drinks on the deck...

A few boats were filling in the harbor, but it will double in another month or so....

I just love this picture....

After all the touring and shopping, we did get to stop at my favorite ice-cream spot (Kimballs). Waited in line for 1/2 hour, but it was so worth it!

And there were crocuses blooming, which makes me think that permanent warmer weather has got to be around the corner!

Sundays in My City

Thanks to unknownmami, we can share our shots of the week on Sundays! This week, the girls and I left the Cape for few days and headed to Ogunquit, ME. The surf was rough, to say the least. Click on the last picture, B had me put a little Thanksgiving treat in it for you.

Once Upon a Time Wednesday....

Once upon a time Wednesday is about things from the past. There are many stories in my head that I want to share with my girls. The trip to Ellis Island, thank you very much Liberty Mutual, this summer made me realize that I had to get these stories documented. History is extremely important and fun! So if you want to join along, please link up on the bottom and share a little piece of your history with the rest of us!

Once upon a time when life was simpler and I was around 11, 12, 13?, we played Kick the Can practically every night in our summer neighborhood in Ogunquit. We lived on a dead end, rocky, dirt road that was a hill. While our parents were, wait, I have no idea what our parents were doing because we were outside playing. We didn't really give them much of a thought. Anyway, there was always a bunch of kids and we had a perfect stump in our yard from where we kicked the can. Our (wall-less)outdoor shower was jail. We ran around everyone's house and hid and giggled and strategized.

One night, my friend Melissa and I were hiding behind the Armstrong's house (they were not home) and we were getting bored/silly waiting for our chance to rescue the prisoners. We started doing handstands against the house and cracked a window. That is how sturdy these "houses/cottages" were. The force from our feet hitting the house, cracked the window. We just about peed ourselves from horror and laughing. We vowed never to tell anyone and we didn't for a long time. The house was sold and remodeled before my sister ratted us out about 15 years later. That was probably the worst thing I have ever done that I kept secret of for so long. (Please read that as I was such a goody goody that breaking a window and not telling was a huge thing for me.)

One other time, we had a rousing game going with tons of kids and this girl, I think her name was Sarah (she was visiting someone), kicked the can and missed and kicked the stump and broke her toe. I think we moved the can from the stump after that mishap.

We also had great games of Capture the Flag on a field at the bottom of the hill. It was just a fun place to be in the summer. I barely remember watching tv there. Of course our tv was about 12 inches with antenna ears on top.

Feel free to chime in with what you parents were up to while your kids were running amuck around the neighborhood, Mom. I also have a feeling my sister will chime in on this one......

Why I Went to Maine!

The real reason I got to go to Maine for an overnight escape was that I volunteered to be Lisa Genova's bodyguard. If you remember(February 4), I wrote about Lisa and her book, Still Alice. Actually, I am friends with Lisa and we both went to Bates and she was doing a few talks up there, so I horned in on her time alone! Ok, I asked if she wanted company and thankfully she did!

We had a great time getting to know each other better and seeing our campus that we hadn't seen in a few years. It has changed so much!!! The amount of new buildings etc was amazing!

We got to stay in a guest house on campus...

This lovely walkway used to be a road, now it is a place where kids can sit on the grass and benches and hang out.
The most impressive change was the Commons. At Bates, everyone eats at the same place. This place was awesome and yes, our jaw dropped when we walked inside.

It wasn't the cute coeds that caused the biggest reaction. It was the cereal bar. Lisa and I spent many meals eating cereal. Actually picking up a box and pouring different types of cereal in our bowls. This is what the spoiled brats, I mean cute coeds, get now!

Yes, I almost fainted. Then I walked over to the bakery section. OMG. I think K wants to go just for this...
Because I cannot sleep in, I got up and walked around campus Thurs morning. I went and visited our ski team meeting place. Everyday for most of the year, except when we were skiing, we met at this rock. The tree has gotten quite a bit bigger in the past 20 years.

This lovely building was once the maintenance shack. Yeah, they tore it down and created this. 
Lisa and I kept wanting to ask each student if they knew how lucky they were! We were wondering if we could come back and grab another degree.

Thursday we were off to Portland to the 207 news office. Lisa was interviewed for 5 minutes. She will be on May 27th if you are in viewing area. It was really cool being a fly on the wall with my camera in the studio!


Lisa had never been to Ogunquit, so we detoured through there on our way home. It was about 90 degrees and a total beach day. We had kids to get home to, so we didn't stay, but we did put our feet in the 40 degree water. 2 days full of talking and interviewing and the girl looks this good.

Thank you Lisa for such a fabulous opportunity! I can't wait to go on your European tour with you!

Ogunquit, Maine

OK, I have tried posting this 3 different ways, but I think I have come upon the final draft. Our trip to Maine was a blast. My mom and dad owned a house in Ogunquit for 20 years or so. My mom took us there on the last day of school and we came back to Acton the day before school started. My dad would come up on the weekends and for a week vacation. It was the best place to spend the summers. We could walk to the beach, play kick the can, walk downtown and of course, when we got older we got jobs (and significant others). So a summer is not complete without a trip down memory lane in Ogunquit. 

This trip was "just girls"... my mom, my sister (KK), K, B and me. We stayed in a friends house in the old "hood". This old hood just happen to be the same hood that Wonderful World of Wieners lived in. Her house is the second of the slideshow. I wish we had known each other better then because other than her Morbid Mondays, we have a lot in common. 

So we went to Perkin's Cove the first afternoon there. We searched for seaglass and rocks shaped as hearts. We walked through the shops and then had dinner at Barnacle Billy's. After a few rum punches, we all got a little giddy. K does a great impression on my mom laughing (see slideshow)

We spend the next day on beautiful Ogunquit Beach. It was just ranked the top beach in the US. Yeah, it's that good. The sand is soft as "buttah". We made a dribble castle on B while she read. She hadn't finished her "summer reading", so we were trying anything to get her to read. My roommate from college came down (she lives in New Gloucester, ME) with her 2 girls that are my girls'  'cousins'. They tell people that they are more than friends, but not blood related. We went back to Perkins Cove and had dinner once again at BB. They have a great outdoor deck. That's where we saw the abomination sitting next to us. Cute, but eeewwww! You'll have to look at the slideshow now. Beck wound up going home, but I kept her girls. The next day at the beach was a blast. The kids all played, I read my book. OK, I went swimming too. I ran the girls up to Freeport to drop off K and E (Becky's girls), spent 30 minutes running into my favorite stores: bought 2 lunchboxes and a cool new pair of flip flops. 

Next day we cleaned up the house that is going to be torn down this winter and rebuilt. We ran to the Marginal way and took some funny pictures and worked our way home. First KK had to get a gift certificate at BB's for a friend. The girl who gave her the GF was pretty rude and the name on her name tag was Lil Pie. I kid you not. Why would anyone put that on their nametag? Anyhoo, on the way home we stopped in Kittery, (outlets),   stopped at Kimball Farm in Westford , MA for the world's best ice-cream and  stopped at Idylwilde Farm (Acton, MA) for the worlds best farm produce.

All in all, a fabulous few days. Want to come next year?

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Small World

A newbie stopped by my blog today and commented on the 4th of July parade. I always like to say thanks and check out a newbie's blog when they've traveled a ways to mine. Especially when the blog is called Wonderful World of Wieners. Now get your minds out of the gutter, it is about dogs people!

Well, come to find out after a few innocent comments.......

we lived about 5 houses away from each other during the summer in Ogunquit, Maine!

And her brother dated my sister!!!!

I know, crazy right?

It's a small, small blog world!