My Life

What's been going on in my life?   Lots and lots......some mundane, some more interesting.

At Work:

It's been very steady at my workplace.  Lots of people traveling.  Our usual after Labor Day lull was only a small lull and is picking back up already.   Everyone is traveling to Italy.

At the House:

We finally have neighbors.  The house next door is about 10 feet from ours, so we have really close neighbors!  It had been empty the entire time we've lived here.   A young couple bought it and are doing the same thing we did.....killing themselves working on it cause they're so excited about having their own house.   They seem to have a penchant for bonfire-style campfires and leaving all their lights on.  I want to be friendly, but no too friendly!  No need to have anyone butting in on our nice quiet life together.

Besides the usual house chores, we are winding down our vegetable garden.   Kind of disappointed.....we got some tomatoes, lots of beans, but no peppers, broccoli, eggplant or squash.  At this late date we have one zucchini growing out there.   We have already begun our mantra of  "next year"........."next year we'll build a bigger fence to keep the deer out, next year we'll fertilize, next year we'll figure out how to make broccoli grow  - and we'll have the best garden ever."    In the meantime, Hubby removed the last of the shrubbery in front of the house,  I moved some plants, and I am now trolling for more perennials for the front of the house.

So far, Hubby's plan to knock down his shed and build a new one is an epic fail.  The shed seems to be listing to one side......I'm going to laugh my a$$ off if it falls down completely before he gets a chance to rip it down.

And I am painting the front porch.  Jamie climbed up on ladders in the spring and painted the trim around the top of the house a nice creamy beige, and the front porch has been sitting there as white as can be.   I'm happy to use up the rest of the beige so the porch can match.   Hopefully I'll have time before the snow flies to paint the deck of the porch dark green.

The Grandkids:

Son Nick and his wife Kelly are busily caring for their new baby girl Audrey.  Hard to believe she's almost four months old!  I've had the joy of taking care of her here and there, but Kelly and Nick are doing a fantastic job -  she's a happy healthy little baby.

Emily has asked me again to make her Halloween costume.   She brought over a magazine with all kinds of costumes in it, and had circled many of them!  Luckily, she picked out one that she wanted above all others  -  "A Fairy Princess Mermaid".    Yea, you heard right.   She was a regular mermaid last year, but this mermaid wears PINK and SPARKLES!   I'm on hold at the moment in sewing the costume, as there has been some word about her requiring rainbow wings.....and I'm not sure if that's a separate costume or part of the Fairy Princess Mermaid.  She drew me a picture, so I'm going to have to see that before I proceed.

I got to see Noah and Elsie at Hubby's sister's wedding.   It was so nice to visit with them and watch them run around, blow bubbles and eat cupcakes.  We should be attending Noah's 5th birthday party soon, so I'll get to see them again.

Our Music:

We spend a lot of time going to Open Mics and stopping in to see other musicians perform.   On October 18, we have the great honor of people the Feature at our usual Open Mic on Friday nights.  Hubby and I are very excited, and working on our songs and creating a couple new ones.

And in between all this, we're participating in a walkathon for breast cancer awareness, visiting family and friends, hosting campfire jams, watching the Red Sox and the Patriots, going to the beach, etc, etc, etc.

LIFE IS GOOD!

Peggy's Wedding

Hubby's sister Peggy was married this weekend.  It was her first wedding, so she pulled out all the stops.  Hubby walked her down the aisle, and I was one of the bridesmaids.  Our camera isn't the best (I am buying a new one tonight!!!) but here are the photos:

Hubby looking dapper before the wedding:

Hubby and I 

The Groom before the ceremony

The Bride before the ceremony

Hubby walking Peggy down the aisle

Giving her away!

Granddaughter Elsie before cupcake!

Hubby and his brother Doug

The four siblings:

Doug, Tag, Peggy and Paul

Doug and Debbie

Jeannie and Paul

Hubby and Peggy

Hubby's son Kenny and his fiance Matthew

The very best picture I've ever gotten of Elsie and Noah!

Hubby dancing with Elsie

Hubby dancing the Father/Brother/Daughter/Sister dance with Peggy

(after they'd already changed out of their fancy duds)

Hubby wrote an absolutely stunning song for his sister for this special dance.   Peggy (and everyone else in the place) bawled!

https://soundcloud.com/tag-vennard/pegs-song?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=facebook

Elsie after the cupcake!

Noah enjoying his cupcake!

The band with the really cool car owned by one of the band members.

Canobie Lake Park Birthday

Hubby and I like to take our grandchildren, and our niece Laura, out for a day of adventure for their birthdays, rather than give them gifts.  This year, Emily's gift for her 6th birthday was a trip to Canobie Lake Park.

A short side-story..........we actually remembered to bring the camera.  When they did our "bag check" at the entrance, the full-of-himself power-hungry "guard" said we had too many snacks.  "Only one snack per person is allowed".   So Hubby had to return to the car with some of the snacks (although many of those snacks made an illicit return trip into the park via his pants pockets) and he inadvertently left the camera with the snacks in the car.  Since he'd already gone to the car twice, (he forgot to bring the keys the first time) we decided to just forget the camera.   So here's the one photo he took before we went into the park:

The picture quality is not great, but I wanted you to  note the snazzy outfit Emily is wearing, including a pink straw hat.  She needed a straw hat since "that's what Pepere always wears".

We arrived at the park at 10:54, which I know for sure since we had to check the time and calculate how many minutes until the rides started at 11:00.   

We let Emily dictate the day, since it was her special day.   Luckily for Pepere and I, she is just under the 48" needed to go on the big, scary rides, which Emily didn't want to go on anyway since "Only crazy people go on those rides!"    So we hit the Kiddie Area, where they have some nice intermediate size rides.  Not the little boats that just go around in circles ("boring!")  but the Dragon Coaster!!!   By the end of the day, we'd been on that one 5 times!!

                        Unbelievably, she was also open to trying some rides she'd never been on before.  

One was the Boston Tea Party.


She loved it!   We didn't get terribly wet when we hit the bottom, but upon exiting the ride there's a bridge which, if you linger too long, you get hit by a tidal wave of water from the next car coming down.
We lingered too long and I spent the rest of the day with fairly wet shorts.

  Emily, however, loved it!

Another ride called the Wave Bouncer strapped us in, went around in circles while bouncing us up and down.  That one she went on twice, once with Pepere and once with Memere.

The Log Flume Ride is a staple at Canobie Lake Park.  Another plunge ride that gets you wet at the bottom.

The first time we went on, Emily buried her face in Pepere's back as we started down the big hill, so as not to get her face wet.   They snap your photo at that point, and when we went to check our photo, Emily was nowhere to be seen, hidden behind Pepere's back.  So the second time we went on, she made sure she leaned out of the log ride, smiled and waved for an instant before ducking safely behind Pepere again.  

Throughout the day we wandered around the park, going on whatever rides took our fancy......sometimes once, sometimes twice and occasionally more than that!   We got some Italian Ice, some popcorn and ice cream and ate our illegal snacks.

The best part of the day, however, was towards the end of the day.  We had negotiated "three more rides" and had checked our map to see which ones we should choose.  On the way over to our first choice we saw Bubble Guns in one of the stores, and we decided to buy her one.

The kid in the store set it up for her, and she was off.   She spent the rest of the evening capturing my heart with the magic that is Emily.   She danced around squirting bubbles around every person she saw, singing her own made-up song about "Bubbles make people happy!"   Her beauty and joie de vivre made every single person smile  - infants, teenagers and elderly folks.  It was such a joy and pleasure for me to see her make everyone's day just a little more special.

We finally left the park at 8pm (although she would have stayed until it closed at 10!).  On our last ride, we saw all the lights in the park come on, which was "so pretty!"    We ended the adventure with supper at Emily's favorite restaurant, Papa Gino's.

We do these trips with our grandchildren to give them special memories, but this one is a special memory for Memere and Pepere as well.

Ahhhhhh.....Summertime!

This summer has not been the best....weatherwise.   We've had more rain than anyone needs (except maybe California...they could probably use some of ours).     We were phenominally lucky to have perfect weather for our trip to Tanglewood, and it rained cats and dogs the minute we got home.

But this weekend was probably one of the nicest weekends ever.   About 80 degrees, blue skies, but no humidity!   So Hubby and I spent pretty much the whole weekend outside.

Saturday morning we both worked in the yard....I weeded and Hubby mowed.  Then we spent most of the afternoon in the backyard reading under a tree.    Saturday evening we went to an outdoor concert of some musical friends.  Then one of those friends invited us to her place for a bonfire.

Nancy lives on a lake, and the scene when we got there was surreal.   It was just dusk, and the you could still see the water but you could also see the lights of houses all along the other side of the lake.  We lit the bonfire, and Nancy and her partner Chris cooked up some burgers and dogs, offered wine and beer, and the guitars came out.   We spent a very pleasant few hours singing around the campfire and cooking s'mores.  (Nancy told us afterward that it was National S'More Day!)

Sunday morning was spent cooking and getting ready for our own BBQ on Sunday night.   I invited my brother, his wife and my niece over for a cookout.  Then my Dad came home from his extended vacation in the Phillipines, so I invited him and his girlfriend Emma over as well.

We had a great time looking at vacation photos, I cooked on the grill, then we lit a campfire and made.......you guessed it.........s'mores!

What a very pleasant weekend - a little work - a lot of fun!  

Tanglewood.......and more!

Last year was Hubby and my first foray into Tanglewood....and we loved it!   As soon as I got the flyer for this year's Tanglewood On Parade, I bought our tickets.   Tanglewood on Parade is a special event where not only do you get the concert at night which features the Boston Pops and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but you also get music all day beginning at 2pm.

Since Tanglewood on Parade is on a Tuesday night, it made sense for us to take Monday off as well so we could have an extra-long weekend.   I thought it'd be cool if we found something to do halfway there, and lo and behold-  halfway there is Sturbridge Village!

Sturbridge Village is a place where they've recreated a village from New England in the 1930's,  We had been there once before, but really loved it, so it was worth another trip.

 Everything is depicted as it was in the 1830's and, since everyone was a farmer, the place begins with a farm.

Some young girls were dying wool yarn.

The printer showed us how printing was done back then.  What a long and arduous process compared to writing stuff up on a computer and printing it on your laser printer!

The stagecoach was a good way to get from city to city.

The blacksmith had a tough job.

The pottery maker is always the best show in town.  This guy was great with the kids and very entertaining for the adults as well.

The weather could not have been more perfect...the best weather we've  had all summer!

After Sturbridge Village, we drove the rest of the way to Pittsfield, MA where we were staying at a Best Western  (1 1/2 nights paid for by earning points through my job at AAA!)

After driving around for a bit trying to find a restaurant open on a Monday night, we found "Bubba Louie's", which we entered with some trepidation!  No worries.....the place was great!  Situated in an old brick mill building, it was authentic Italian food.....delicious!

Tuesday we headed over to Tanglewood.......

Hubby finally got to hear a concert out of Ozawa Hall!  We heard a Cello concert, which was actually a lot of fun.  Then we listened to the beginning of a piano concert which was a real snoozer!

Another gorgeous day, and Hubby and I enjoyed the grounds tremendously.

As always, the place was packed, but there's always plenty of "lawn seats".   Last year we were quite amused at the lengths people went to make a "picnic"...with full size tables, candles, tablecloths, etc.  That didn't change our way of doing things at all!  In fact, we forgot our Red Solo Cups and plates, so we had to make do with "stolen" paper products from our hotel!!

Besides Ozawa Hall, we enjoyed a magician  and this Fiddle Band as well.

The evening concert was fantastic, with The Tanglewood Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops, which concluded with the 1812 Overture, including cannons!  The night was capped off with fireworks.

And Wednesday we concluded our vacation with a visit to The Norman Rockwell Museum, one of our favorites.  Their special exhibit was the art of the Disney Snow White movie, which was fabulous!

A very relaxing and wonderful vacation for Hubby and me!