My Hubby Rocks!

I've been grumping for a bit now about the end of summer coming. It's been one of the hottest, sunniest summers we've seen in a long time, and I haven't spent any of it outside at the beach. I'm not used to having a summer job where I have to be indoors, and I miss being outside in the nice weather. Hubby is such a wonderful and understanding guy, he agreed to do something about it! So after we both worked yesterday morning, he took me out for the rest of the day (and night) to the beach. Here's a very happy Karen: Long Sands Beach in York, Maine.

Then we drove up the coast to Cape Neddick. Hubby would love to be this guy when he retires.

Cape Neddick Lighthouse

The ocean from Cape Neddick

Hubby loves the smell of the beach flowers.

From there we drove further up the coast to Perkins Cove, where you can get onto the "Marginal Way" .....one of our favorite places. It's a one-mile walk along the ocean on a little cliff overlooking the rocks.

Someone spent some time decorating with rocks.

By the time we got to the end of the Marginal Way and onto Ogunquit Beach, the sun was setting.

I'm not grumping anymore!

It was too dark to walk back along the Marginal Way to Perkins Cove, so we took the trolley. There's a whole system of Trolleys up in Ogunquit and into Wells. I think ours was named Rolly Trolley.

Now, isn't this a happy and relaxed looking couple?

A Bundle of Energy

Saturday night we were excited to babysit Emily for the evening. Since she got her Thomas Train table for her birthday, no evening is complete without hours of playing at the train table. Pepere enjoys it as much as Emily does.

Memere likes more sedate play.......

except when Emily decides it might be fun to jump!

"I NOT jumping on the couch, Memere!"

Being silly is always fun..............

Eventually........she does tucker out!

Hubby's First Lobster!

Despite living in New England all his life, Hubby has never eaten a whole lobster. When I gave a gift of a lobster dinner to my Dad for Father's Day, I told him it had to include giving Hubby a lesson on how to eat one. My brother John volunteered to cook the lobsters at his house. In his usual French-cooking Frechette-family way, he went all out. We not only had lobsters, we had steak and lamb tips on the grill, potatoes and corn-on-the-cob. John did a great job preparing the little beauties: Hubby looks a bit apprehensive as he tries to determine the best way to grasp the situation:

"You're not serious about me eating THIS, are you?"

"MMMMM! It tastes good!"

My Dad and my brother John enjoyed the meal:

And so did John's wife Ruth, even though she didn't have any of the lobster!

Laura liked the lamb tips but skipped the lobster as well:

Dad got to take the "extra" lobster home.

Where does the time go?

I was shocked to check out my blog and realize I hadn't posted in a week. Even more shocked to realize I hadn't read anyone else's blog in that time and most people had posted two or three times. What have I been doing? I don't know. Just doing my thing, I guess. I took the day off Monday, just for the heck of it. They had scheduled my half-day for Monday afternoon, and I figured....who wants to go into the office for a half day on Monday morning? Plus, my daughter has her day off on Monday and I thought it would be great to spend some time with her. My dearest wish was to spend the day at the beach. However, after a full summer of hot, sunny days while I was stuck in an office, my one day off was overcast and threatening rain! Never fails. So Jamie and I had lunch together and went to the movies instead. We saw "Eat, Pray, Love" with Julia Roberts. It was a good movie......a lot to digest in one sitting. Now I want to read the book. Tuesday night I went out on my monthly lunch date with my girlfriends. We chose a local Chinese restaurant. We spent the evening as we usually do....chatting about our families and our work and our vacations. On Wednesday, (and Thursday and Friday) I had to go work at another office location. It's 17 miles away, which is a huge commute for me.....I work 1 1/2 miles from my house usually. Hubby gave me some awsome directions to go the back roads. Thank God, cause there's no way I could have handled going on the highway. Wednesday night I attended a baby shower for a woman from work. It was fun to get together with people I work with on an informal basis. In between all this.......cleaning and shopping and laundry, etc. Keeping up with other family members on Facebook and by phone. Paying bills and making dinner and spending time with Hubby. And that's been my week. The weekend coming up is full. Working this morning and babysitting tonight. Then Sunday we are going to my brother's house for my Dad's long-awaited lobster-fest and then to the antique car show. And then it will be Monday again.

Vennard Family Reunion

We attended Hubby's family reunion yesterday. Since he comes from a very musical family, his reunions become a "jam", and yesterday was no exception.

Hubby on the keyboard, his brother Doug on lead guitar, his cousin Ricky on drums and his cousin's son Danny on bass guitar.

Besides singing, there was a bit of dancing here and there:

Cousin Scott cutting a rug with his wife Cindi.

Doug's wife Debbie sings with the band. Kevin got up the guts to do a guest appearance, along with cousin Jimmy as back-up while Doug accompanies them on guitar.

Hubby croons out a tune.

And rocks it out on the keyboard.

One of the only of the "family elders" left, Aunt Theresa enjoys the festivities.

Office politics

So the person in our office who gives us all the grief (aka "The PITA") is on vacation this week. And I cannot even begin to explain the difference in the atmosphere of the office. We're happy. We're silly. We laugh. We enjoy each other. We don't have to listen to loud laughing, talking, self-aggrandizing.......and on and on and on. We don't have to be careful of every word we say, for fear that the moaning we do about our jobs or our bosses will be carried tattle-tale-like to the mucky mucks. We can tell a story all the way to the end without being interrupted. We don't have to listen to the bigger, better, more wonderful story she has to tell. Everyone is relaxed. Everyone is comfortable. And all I can hope is that she went job hunting while on vacation and will come back on give her notice. God forgive me.

Emily Turns Three!!

Our baby girl turned three! Unbelievable! She's turning into a sweet, happy, silly, fun-loving girl. She was very happy that Pepere and I brought balloons to her party. Mom, Dad and Emily in a rare family photo with everybody looking!

Since her birthday is in the middle of summer, Emily always gets to have the "Fun in the Sun" birthday party....with water tables, pools and slides. This year her Uncle Eric brought a bounce house and Auntie Jamie got her a slip n slide to add to the fun.

She sat on Daddy's lap while Mom brought out her "Thomas the train and Island of Sodor" birthday cake. She got to take a little taste......and then later, while no one was looking, took 10 or 15 more "tastes"!

PS....I've been trying to upload videos for a couple of days......and they won't upload. Anyone else having trouble?

Getting to Know Me

Thanks to Colleen at Main Street Memories for sending me this fun meme: A- My AIR CONDITIONER is set on: Freezing cold...much to Hubby's chagrin. But I let him hog all the blankets. B- My BEDROOM theme is: Early American Yard Sale. C- The CAR in the driveway is: My sweet Ellie the Hyundai Elantra. She's cranberry. D- My DESK looks: Like a paper bomb went off on it. E- The EXACT time I wake up daily is: 7:37. I don't know. Hubby sets the alarm for me after he gets up. F- The FIRST thing I wash in the shower is: My hair, if need be. If not, then my face. G- My GARAGE is filled with: Air. Because there is no garage. H- My HOUSE is: Too small, too close to the other people in our condo building and hopefully soon to be on the market. I- If you peeked INSIDE my bedroom you'd see: A bit of a mess. J- My favorite JUICE is: Margurita juice. K- The best part of my KITCHEN is: My Hubby standing in it making fried chicken. L- The LAST person who visited my home was: My darling daughter Jamie, who shared some nice Maki with us while she regaled us with tales from her canoe trip. M- The last piece of MAIL for me was: Junk.....although I am fighting the junk mail (again) by sending back anything that has a postage paid return envelope...filled with their own promotional stuff and written on the front: "Remove me from your mailing list". N- My NEIGHBORS think I'm: nothing....I don't know my neighbors. O- If you OPENED my fridge you'd see: A little leftover this, a little leftover that....... P- My last house PARTY was: hmmmm...can't consider anything at my house a party. I guess having Hubby's kids over would be considered a party? Q- A QUICK meal I like to fix is: bowl of Cap'n Crunch...plain..none of that peanut butter or Crunchberry stuff for me. R- My favorite ROOM of the house is: not too many to chose from....but the bedroom would be my favorite (wink, wink) S- The SHAMPOO brand I use is: Shampoo can be anything, but gotta have Pantene conditioner for my hard-to-manage hair. T- My largest TELEVISION is: Too big. It was a hand-me-down from my Dad...enthusiastically received by Hubby. I can't sit far enough away in our small place to not feel like I"m in the front row of the theater. U- UNDER my bed you will find: The cat when the grandchildren are visiting. V- The last time I VACUUMED was: This week sometime.... W- Looking out my WINDOW I see: Dirt from when the upstairs neighbor waters her plant on her windowsill, and the water cascades down my window. I gotta find a chance to have a chat with that neighbor. X- I wish I had X-TRA: time to relax Y- My YARD is: non-existent Z- ZZZZZZZ My bedtime is: Whenever...........

The weekend of the grandchildren

We had a wonderful time with Emily on Friday night. So on Sunday, when Doug and Kara called to ask if we could babysit for a couple of hours, we couldn't say no. Kara's brother's baby had been born and they wanted to go see him. The problem was.....Emily had just received her new Thomas The Train table with tracks and accessories and didn't want to go visit her new baby cousin in the hospital. I really, really wish we'd had our camera with us, cause Emily and Pepere played Thomas the Train for over two hours! Then at night, we had invited Hubby's two kids and significant others and baby Noah for dinner. It's awfully hard to get a good picture of Noah, since he moves so much! He and his Grampy have a special bond. They had fun together playing on the floor. We're thankful that, so far, Noah thinks Play-dough is for stacking. He does love rocking out to Grampy's guitar. And the rest of the crew, who cheered Noah on during all his endeavors; Matthew, Kenny, Wendy and Allen.