The End Of 2006.........
Well, 2006 is finally coming to a close! This makes me happy because this year has certainly not been my favorite year but I guess things could be worse. This past week has been interesting.....Stephen went back into the hospital. His lung had collapsed again! They had to do surgery this time around which meant him staying in the hospital over Christmas. His surgery was done on Tuesday, which was the day after Christmas. He did very well and ended up going home late Thursday afternoon. He'll be staying with Dana and Ann for a few days and will hopefully be on the mend now and stay healthy for a while! My father went into the hospital on the 27th. He had been having some pain between his shoulders and experienced shortness of breath whenever he walked around. This had been going on for some time. He ended up having 3 stents put in! I guess it's a good thing his was persistent and followed through. I took him home this morning. He came through the procedure with flying colors. I think everyone is all healed up now and hopefully ready to start a healthy new year.
Our Christmas was very nice. We hosted a Christmas Eve gathering at our house and had quite a crowd. There was way too much food but I guess that goes with the territory. On Christmas Day, we visited Stephen in the hospital and mostly spent a quiet day. We opened gifts with our kids around 4:00 and then cooked dinner. Dana, Ann and their family came over and joined us. We had a good time but again, there was too much food. Tomorrow will be the day that I get the big green trash bag out and throw a bunch of stuff away, including the candy that I can't stay away from!
I'll be starting a new job on Tuesday of the new year! The other job that I had was not a good fit for me but I knew that from the very beginning. I continued to look for work while I worked there though and was pretty picky about places I applied to. I went for one interview. It was working in a small office doing a lot of different things. I wanted the job badly because it's really everything I've been looking for. Well, after a couple of weeks, they called me and offered me the position! It is literally 10 minutes from my house and the benefits are much better. There are lots of other perks that I didn't get with the previous position. I'm very excited about it and think that it will work out great for me.
I think that's about it for this week......I'm hoping that things are a bit boring for a while. I need boring right now.
My family and I all have new things to look forward to......good health and my new job! We are very lucky!!
Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you all have a great year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I cannot believe that it's Christmas time already! It's been a few weeks since I've done a blog so this is going to be a combination blog.....a long one. The past few weeks have been pretty busy for us. We've closed and moved into our new house here in Scarborough. We had a lot of help and managed to get everything loaded and unloaded from the truck in record time. I would say that we are 3/4 unpacked at this point. I have nothing on the walls because we're going to paint two rooms so I'm holding off on it all. I like to think about things before I do them so I'll unpack all of the pictures and set them out to look at them for a few days before I make any decisions on what will be going where. Our friends and family have been great in helping us with our move and of course all of their love and support over these past few months. I know I've said it before but we could not have done it without them. It seems like since we've moved in, we haven't had a minute to breathe. After working all day, it's tough to come home and fix dinner, do laundry and all of the other usual stuff and then have multiple boxes to still unpack. Our weekends have been filled so far. We are hoping to get a lot done this weekend and then we'll be hosting Christmas Eve for my family here on Sunday evening. This Christmas will be different for us than the past few years have been. We won't be traveling to get home to Maine! It's nice to be back home but it will be nicer when the holidays have passed and life gets a little boring. I don't think that will happen anytime soon for us but I'm still looking forward to it. Life is very busy for us right now but it's nice to be back home. I still catch myself thinking "how the hell did we manage to get back here" and it seems like yesterday that I was so homesick and wanting to be back in Maine. I never thought I'd have to adjust to life back in Maine but between working outside of the house and moving to yet another house, it is taking some adjustment. I'm sure that by the time spring rolls around, we'll be settled into somewhat of a routine.

We had quite a scare last week.....my brother Stephen had not been feeling well for a few weeks. He called Dana and Ann to let them know how he'd been feeling on Thursday night. They went over and took him to the hospital. After running tests, they determined that he had a collapsed lung. They figured it had been collapsed for quite some time and admitted him so that they could re-inflate his lung. Dana, being the loyal brother that he is, spent the night in the chair next to Stephen's hospital bed. Now that's what family is all about!!!! They inserted a chest tube....now for those of you who know Stephen, that is huge! It's quite a painful procedure and for someone who doesn't like needles, he did pretty well overall. Thankfully, it took less time than they first anticipated to re-inflate his lung and he was able to go home on Saturday. He's taking it easy for a couple of weeks. Let's hope he follows their advice and gets back to being his old self soon! Just another thing to be thankful for this year.

I wanted to post more pictures but I guess I'm limited......I'll keep going though:

On Saturday, Melissa and I went to see the Magic of Christmas at Merrill Auditorium. Deidre and Dave's daughter Nicole sang in the chorus. I love seeing that show and try to go every year. It helps put you in the Christmas spirit. I find it relaxing. I guess Danny doesn't feel the same way about it which is why Melissa went with me instead of my original date. I had a good time but I found myself only watching Nicole the whole time though! Even though we were in the nosebleed section, I think Nicole did a great job! I even managed to get Melissa to sing a couple of songs during the sing along portion. I think she enjoyed it. She and I had a good time together.

Saturday was also Tiffany's 27th birthday! She got a wrap for her engagement ring which she has wanted for quite some time now.....she's a lucky girl being married to one of the best men on the face of the earth! Danny, Melissa and I went to dinner with Tiff and her parents, her sister and her sister's fiance (oops....or soon to be). She got many nice gifts from everyone. She's such a good girl and we love her a lot! Happy 27th Tiff.

I think the new year will certainly be an interesting one for us. I'm determined to spend some much needed time with people who we haven't been able to see or visit with yet. I'd like to spend some time with my extended family too. Things should settle down and we'll be able to enjoy our time more. Having our pool will keep us busy this summer too. Danny is staying busy with his new job. He's been traveling quite a bit in the last two weeks but hopefully that will slow down a little bit. For those of you wondering.....YES, he still likes his job. He has no desire to go back to hell. We are quite content right where we are in our lives. We don't have everything we had before but in many ways we have even more. As they say...."Money can't buy happiness". I can honestly say that's true in our case. Life is a learn as you go game. Stay tuned....there are new things on the job horizon for me in the new year.....I'll post more about it later next week.

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone!

By the way......I know my posts are getting boring.....hang in there with me! I'm almost out of transition!!!

Thanksgiving 2006......
We had a very nice turkey day this past week. My kids and their spouses came up. Dana and Ann had Amanda and Mitch up and Jeneka and Evan were home from college. Stephen joined us later in the day.
Melissa made 6 great looking pies. They also tasted great. I'm an apple fan myself so I was happy! Here is a picture of Melissa with her pies.

Tiffany made some fudge and brought a veggie platter and dip. The fudge was really good! I never knew you had it in ya, Tiff! I'm proud of you. You can take over fudge duties from now on. I don't have a picture of Tiffany with her fudge but here's the next best thing with her fudge!




It was an overall uneventful day......just the usual teasing and raising hell. Dana, Ann, Jeneka, Evan & Julianna (Evan's girlfriend) went with Danny and I to the movies that night to see "Bobby" which is the story behind the murder of Bobby Kennedy. Jeneka and I thought it was a great movie, Dana hated it, Danny, Evan and Ann thought it was eh, okay. I would recommend it!


Congratulations to Sharon and Willy!!!!! Also known as Grandma Mimi and Grampa B....Their son Jim and his wife Jen had their first child, Alexa Paige McGarrity. Congratulations to all! I wanted to post pictures but this blog page doesn't let me load bitmaps....she's a beauty though! Looks just like her Mimi.

Wow! Is it that time already?

I guess it's time for another blog. We have been working as usual. I'm adjust much better now but still don't think I'll be working there for a long time. I'll just take things as they come. I continue to look at other possibilities but so far, nothing solid has turned up. Danny is still liking his new job. We were talking about what a freedom it finally is for him to be out of all of the bullshit that went along with the old job. Life is much better now and much simpler for us. Things are good. We're counting down the days until we close on the new house. I wish I could access the pictures but it's not working out the way I want it to so I'll post them as soon as we close, I promise!
This week is Thanksgiving and Dana and Ann are on vacation. Evan is home from college for the week and Jeneka will be home on Wednesday. We're looking forward to all getting together here with the family on turkey day. Danny has Friday off and me, being the low man on the totem pole at work, will be working on Friday. Gone are the days of getting up at the crack of dawn to go shopping and then on to the Bonney Eagle craft fair.....hopefully those days will come again soon! I've got 95% of my shopping done anyway and shouldn't be spending extra money so I guess it's all working out for the best. Life has a way of doing that.
I spent Saturday taking the dogs for yet another lousy haircut and while I was waiting for them, I went and visited Carolyn at Guidi's and had breakfast. I then went to get my own haircut. I took the dogs back home (or what we are calling home right now :-) ) and Ann and I picked Melissa up and went up to Beans and then on to do some other shopping. We finished our night off at Bugaboo Creek. The guys went out hunting for poor defensless deer all day and then ordered some macho ultimate fight on tv and stayed up later than they should have. Today, Danny and I did chores and then he made an awesome lasagne for dinner. The deal was, he made everyone lasagne only if someone ironed his clothes for the week......guess who? That would be me!
Okay, enough jabbering....not much else to blog about but I'll be sure to take lots of pictures on Thanksgiving and post them. We have much to be thankful for this year. Everyone have a happy Thanksgiving!

And the beat goes on.......
Well, it's been a while since I've done a blog so I thought I'd give you a quick run down on the latest happenings.......not much happening! We're waiting on all of the paperwork for the closing of our new home. Danny is home from his travels last week and I'm settling in to my new job. I've been really tired but I expected it really......especially since I haven't had to get up early in the morning for a few years. Things are okay though. We've got a little more than 3 weeks until we close on the house. This weekend Dana and Ann will be traveling to upstate NY to see Evan run in a cross country meet. Danny and I will be holding down the fort. Tiffany is having some surgery on Friday so I want to be around to help her out. On Saturday we'll be spending some time with Deidre and Dave. I plan on visiting with my father while we're up that way too. There's not much else going on but I'll certainly keep you all updated weekly. I hope my buddies in Rochester are doing well! They're expecting their first grandbaby any day now! We miss you!!

Home inspection and work.....
We did the home inspection this past Sunday. Everything went well. We've got a little more than 4 weeks to go until we close. That will be on a Monday so we'll take the week and do all of the cleaning and stuff like that at night. The weekend will be spent moving. Thats the weekend of December 8 - 10 for those of you who might want to help! :-)
Danny is out of town this week and won't be back until Monday. He called tonight and told me that he met George Bush at dinner tonight. He'll be sending me the pictures so I'll put them on here. Not that I'm a fan.....sorry! He is full of SH** though, so I can't wait to see what these pictures consist of. Once we get moved, I'll stop being so lazy about putting pictures on here and post some.
I started my new job on Monday. Between the time change and the fact that I have to rise up out of bed with the rest of the world, I've been coming right home at night and crashing. I'm sure things will be better next week though. Things are going well but I'll definately be busy once I'm trained. They've told me that I probably won't be fully trained for a year. I'm hoping that I'll have started and completed the medical transcription classes by then though and can start working in that field. I plan to start classes for that after Christmas. It's something that I've been thinking about doing for a long time and I think that given our recent circumstances, there is no better time for me to do it. I'll continue to work while I'm taking the classes and then decide whether or not to work for a company or just work from home.
What happened to the comments? I know there are more than a few people who read this blog. I wanted to get an idea of who was reading it....leave me a comment......please?

Back to work......
I accepted a job this week (as I said in the last blog) and was going to start on Monday morning. Today I got a call from another one of the companies that I had interviewed with last week. They called to offer me the job for a few dollars more an hour than the first place. I accepted the position. Not only because it was more money but I think it will be a better fit for me. I'll be working with someone that I worked with at Fairpoint too. He also thinks I'll be a good fit for the job. This is going to prove to be interesting for me seeing that I haven't worked outside of my house since I left Maine. It will be an adjustment to say the least. Of course we are still staying with Dana and Ann right now until we close on the new house so things will be a little bit crazy for the next couple of months with me adjusting to working again and getting settled into a new house. I'm kind of feeling like we've just gone in a big circle (or curcle as Dave would say...lol) over the past 5 years. We're kind of right back where we started it seems. Money was a little better when we left but oh well, you can't have everything and believe me, I feel extremely lucky to have been able to settle back into Maine so quickly and still be able to afford a house and just live the simple life that we used to live before we left. It's really all I've wanted anyway so we just took a little bit of a different route to get back here. It's been tough but we've learned a lot from it.
I think December will be a little tough to move into a house but I'm ready for the challenge. I can't wait to see all of my stuff again! I miss my bed and my big double chair! Since Danny will be traveling quite a bit, I'll have plenty of time to put things away and organize (not that he's getting out of it!). I'll be calling on all of you wonderful friends and family to help us :-) It can be your Christmas present to us! We'll be renting a truck and hopefully not making more than two trips. We're going in on Sunday for an inspection of the new house. Since the house is so new, we don't think there will be anything that comes up for us. Danny's friend Tim will be helping us out with the inspection. I'll post some pictures of the house soon.
For those of you who we have not been able to visit yet.....be patient with us please. It's been kind of tough to keep up with everything and then have time to visit everyone too. I have lots of people that I really want to see and promise that as soon as we get settled in, we'll be visiting you or inviting you to visit us. Thanks for understanding and thank you also for following my blog. It would be nice to see who is following it on a regular basis too so feel free to leave a comment so I'll know who the audience is these days. I think I may have pissed a couple of people off over the past couple of months too but as the song goes: "You can't please everyone so you've got to please yourself"
I'll post again soon!

Back in the real estate game.....
Well, we've found another house! I am sooooo excited about this one but afraid to get too excited just in case something goes wrong again. The house is in Scarborough which is also a great location for us to live. It's a ranch style house with a finished daylight basement. It's 5 years old and has been meticulously maintained. We won't have to do a thing when we move in! Of course we'll still clean it but the paint colors and the floors and all of the fixtures are in great shape. The closing is scheduled for December 4th. It'll be an early Christmas present!

Besides house hunting this past weekend, we went out to eat with Deidre and Dave and then like the old people we have become, we walked around the mall for something to do. It actually turned out to be quite entertaining. Dave got his Yankees hat, got some Lindt chocolates and then pretended he was a cowboy! See proof below!


I've now gone on several job interviews. I must be doing something right because I've been called back for a 2nd interview for each job. I have been offered one of them and accepted it but it doesn't pay nearly what I'm looking for so unless one of the other places offers me a job this week (they are making their decisions this week), I'll be starting this low paying job next Monday. Hey the way I figure it, money has got to be made and it's a lot better than nothing so I'll take whatever I can get at this point. I'll keep you updated on that front......it'll give me something else to blog about later this week!

What's the opposite of Under Contract?
Well whatever it is, that is what we are right now. After taking another look at the house in Gorham and having an inspection and radon test done, we are no longer buying that house. The list was very long as far as outstanding issues and the radon test numbers came back well above an acceptable level.......so........it's back to the drawing board. I looked at a bunch of houses on Wednesday but didn't have a whole lot of luck. I'll be looking at a few on Friday too so let's hope for the best.
In between everything else, I've gone on a few different job interviews this week. For not having gone on an interview in many years, I've done quite well. I guess I'll know next week just how well the interviews went. It seems that they'll all be making a decision next week so maybe I'll have a choice. That would be good!
Dan will be traveling for a couple of weeks beginning Monday. He's off to Texas and Colorado. He continues to learn a lot and is really feeling great about his job. While I'm at it, for those of you who care (because apparently some people keep talking about this), Dan DID NOT get fired from his position in Massachusetts. He left on his own.....his decision, nobody else. They were quite surprised so I guess you can take that back to the people who seem to have an obsession with the rumor mill at TW. Find something else to talk about, will ya? We're so over it and you should be too.
We'll probably have a busy weekend looking at houses on Saturday and probably going to open houses on Sunday. Saturday night we're having dinner with Deidre and Dave....that'll be fun. Keep your fingers crossed for us on the house hunting! I'll keep y'all (geez, am I still in Texas?)updated.

ANOTHER Birthday............
Dan Sr. turns 45 today! Since there is only one day between, we celebrated both birthdays on Sunday. He doesn't look a day over......ummmm......45. This will prove to be one of the most interesting years of his life, I'm sure. He is adjusting well to his new job. He'll be traveling next week to Texas and then on to Colorado. It will be pretty quiet here without him. He's an awesome husband!! Who else could put up with me?! I'm very proud of what he's accomplished over the past few months. I never had a doubt that he'd land back on his feet! I love you honey!

Happy Birthday...... Okay, you be the judge



to my favorite son! He turned 27 years old today!!! I cannot believe I have a child that old. It seems not so long ago that I was up all night with him rocking him in a rocking chair. I could not be any prouder of the person that he has become. He has a huge heart and is always willing to help anyone in need. I hope you had a great day.....now.....cut that beard that you've recently decided to grow! I HATE it!!!!!! I want to see you looking like the picture above! That's what you can give your mother for Christmas and it won't cost you a thing. I love you very much and am beyond proud of the person you've become!

Okay, I'll keep playing.........
For a little while longer. I've looked at some good blog homes but I've been too busy to investigate them fully. I'll stick with this. The pictures are loading so I'll catch up with some pics from the Mall Of America (look out Deidre!) and from our day of apple picking.

We continue to be busy with things. Dan is finding his job to be pretty interesting and he really likes it. He is under a LOT less stress which makes the whole thing worth it in my opinion. I'm still on the hunt for a job. I'm not really being all that fussy either. I've applied for over 30 office jobs. Now I know that I have a little problem with low self esteem but one other thing I know is that I'm not stupid and I'm a hard and dedicated worker. I've got a lot of experience in a lot of different areas so I guess I'll just have to continue being patient on the job front.

Baylee and Ella got their first "Maine" haircut. Oh boy, I really wish I could post pictures on here. They got hacked!!! They looked as bad as I've ever seen them look. We couldn't decide if they looked like bats or some kind of rodent. I had to take them to another groomer the very next morning to see what they could do to make them look a little better. She did a pretty good job but they're going to be cold for a while!

We went out house shopping over the weekend. We saw several houses on Saturday with our real estate agent and then Dan and I went out to some open houses on Sunday. We found a perfectly located home in Gorham which will be a very short commute for Dan and hopefully me when I figure something out. We'll have to go into the house and do some work but are overall happy with our choice. We'll make the changes and it will seem more like our home. The kitchen will probably be the first to be changed which will make a huge difference. Other than that, it's mostly paint and trimming overgrown bushes. Hopefully we'll be ready to move in just before Thanksgiving. I guess that'll give us something to really be thankful for! I'll post again soon!

After this blog, I'll be trying to find a new blog home because I'm unable to load pictures anymore. I'll let you all know the new "spot".

Jobs, Houses, Apples and Bruises.......
Danny's job is going well. Since this is a totally different line of work for him, there is a learning curve but he likes it and is excited about learning new things. I am still working on a couple of prospects but so far, nothing solid. Keep your fingers crossed for me! The sale of our home in Rochester is now complete. We are now in the process of searching for a house. So far, things have been a little disappointing. Like I said in an earlier blog, I wish I could have picked my house up in Rochester and moved it here. I cannot even begin to compare so I'll spare you and won't! We've teamed up with a realtor and will be out on Saturday searching for the day.

This past Saturday we went apple picking in Cornish with our kids (when I say kids, I mean Dan, Tiffany, Melissa and Gavin) and Deidre, Dave along with their daughter Nicole. It was a beautiful day. We parked in an area below the orchard and jumped in a bus that took us up to the orchard. The bus was pretty unique because it had a few bus seats but mostly couches and chairs that probably came from someone who was getting rid of their living room furniture. The very last seat was a small cot that was opened up. I guess if anyone got tired during the 3 minute drive, they could go back there and rest. When we got to the orchard, they had a bluegrass band playing and a chicken barbeque. We didn't pay to eat but still was able to listen to the band playing. The background was beautiful with the mountains and the trees just starting to turn. I would have liked to bring chairs and just sit and enjoy that....maybe next year.
Gavin has a terrible memory when it comes to people he has met in the past. Melissa said that before we met up that day, Gavin didn't remember who Deidre and Dave were. Once we met up, he remembered them. We picked a bag of apples and wandered around the orchard, kidding around. Melissa decided to have Gavin throw an apple at me (I used to do the same thing to her when they were younger). I will first say that he was aiming low...........but.........he obviously flipped his hand upward at the last minute and the apple went higher than expected and shot past my shoulder and hit Deidre squarely in the eye! It was pretty shocking to Deidre (and painful) but maybe a bit more shocking (and embarrassing) to Gavin who really doesn't know Deidre very well. Her eye turned red all around it and looked like she might have a good shiner later on. Gavin apologized over and over. I guess not only did he learn a lesson about throwing things but now he'll remember who Deidre is. We went over to the part of the orchard where you can put an apple into a slingshot and aim at a target across a pond. If you get the apple through the hole, you get free fudge (which by the way, is awesome!). Everyone had fun doing that. We then jumped on the bus and headed back to the car. We picked up sandwiches at the store and went back to Dan and Tiff's house. It was a nice and relaxing day and as usual, it wasn't boring with Gavin around.

Great Cause.....

Hey Everyone,

Roy (Danny's brother) and his fiance Kathy are participating in a Breast Cancer walk this month. They have asked me to post a link to the following site:
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?px=1615475&pg=personal&fr_id=2196&et=0VEKOzswQU1NTBaDQ-mJ7A..&s_tafId=4916
Dear Friend,
This year I am participating in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. Making Strides is a non-competitive 5K walk that takes place in 28 cities across Florida. Making Strides has no registration fee and no fundraising minimum, which means that more people can participate. However, the many breast cancer programs of the American Cancer Society depend on the generous donations collected by Making Strides Participants, so I'm asking you to please support me with an online donation of any amount. Whether its $10, or $500, every bit truly does help.

Kathy and I will be participating in a Breast Cancer walk on October 21st. This is especially important to Kathy because of the passing away of her Grandmother at 57 of Breast Cancer.

We truly appreciate your help.

Roy & Kathy

Triple Blog......
I've got a lot to blog about so this will be 3 different subjects.
I want to start out by letting everyone know who reads this blog, including family members that this was intended to let everyone know what we were up to and how we were doing. Since we are so lucky to have such great friends and family who care about us, I thought that rather than repeat ourselves multiple times when something was happening in our lives, I'd put it here and the intention was not to make it "public" but only let friends and family know where the blog site was and if they wanted to keep up with what we were up to, they could. These are people that we most likely would have told all of these things to anyway. We did not intend to leave anyone out of what was happening in our lives. With that being said, Danny and I have been through a lot this past 6 weeks. I don't think some of you can imagine the feeling of going from a nice home and great job to where we are today. This has been extremely difficult and we have not had a full nights sleep since. We are stressed every day and on top of looking for jobs, we are trying to deal with other important family issues that require immediate attention. Needless to say, we don't need anymore stresses. If you feel like you are left out of the loop then you've missed the point of this blog. I'm not talking about most of you because 99% of you have been so awesome over these past weeks that we don't know what we would have done without you. We have learned some very important life lessons about family and friends. You can probably guess by now that this particular blog is intended to send a message to certain people....well, you're right. It is. Danny and I do believe that our lives are more important right now. That might not sound okay to some people but we've spent most of our lives being generous and active in other people's lives. This is a time for us to worry about ourselves. We are excited about being back in Maine and closer to everyone. We will miss the friends we made but hopefully they'll come to visit us and we'll visit them and plan vacations together in the future. We've learned a lot about people, both good and sometimes not so good. Our circle has become much smaller over these past weeks. Remember, you can comment at the end of every blog if you've got a question or if you'd rather things be less "public" I've got an email address: cheryl_engelhardt@hotmail.com

GREAT NEWS!!!
We ARE staying in Maine! Danny has been offered a position at Idexx! We are so happy today and a lot of stress has been lifted off our shoulders. It's a solid job and will be very interesting and rewarding for him. Now I've got to land a job and we'll be off to house hunting again :-( This time will be much better though because we're finally home. It's been a long road but we've met a lot of fantastic people and have seen a lot of places that we might otherwise not have.

Mall of America.....(Deidre is lucky that I can't get any pictures loaded tonight!)Deidre and I went to the Mall of America this past weekend. We had a really great time. The place is certainly something to see. It has an amusement park in the center of it and the stores are endless. Neither of us spent much money. We were happy just going through all of the different stores and hanging out together. No matter how much time goes by, Deidre and I can not see each other for a year and meet up somewhere and it seems like we've never been apart. We just pick up where we left off. We like the same things (except shoes!) and there is never a time when we don't agree on what to do or where to go. She is an awesome person who has been my friend for many many years. She has been very supportive these past weeks and I couldn't have gotten through this without her! She has been my sounding board and my voice of reason. I'm so happy that we'll be able to spend more time together.

Good Times and Good People.....
We had some good times this past weekend. On Saturday night, we went to have dinner at Deidre and Dave's house. It was great to see them and re-hash old times. We've been friends with them longer than any of our other friends and we always have a great time, no matter what we end up doing. We always seem to entertain ourselves. Boy, do we have some interesting and funny stories! As you can see by the picture, Dave continues to be the target of all jokes in our friendship. I'm sure that will change some day but for now, it's fun! We love you Dave!


We've missed hanging out with them a lot but will hopefully be doing a lot more with them now that we are back home in Maine. Deidre and I are off to the Mall of America on Thursday. I'm excited to go and hang out with her and just take a breather from all the chaos!

Sunday At The Beach....


We went to Pine Point with Dan and Tiff. We took the dogs. I wasn't crazy about taking the dogs with us because there are usually people who take their dogs to the beach but leave them unleashed which ends up with my dogs being chased around. Well, this time things turned out great. It was a beautiful day and after we got by the crowd of people at the beginning of the entrance, it was fairly quiet and we were able to relax and enjoy the walk. The dogs loved the walk and got caught by a few waves so ended up being all wet and sandy by the time I got them back to the car. I think we probably only walked about a mile and a half but it made me want to go back and do it again. I'm hoping to sneak back down there before the weather starts getting colder.

These people........... are our neighbors from Rochester, NY. I wanted to wait to write a blog about them because every time I'd get ready to do it, they were doing another favor for us or we were doing something together that I wanted to write about. The picture above was taken on the day that Dan and I moved out of our house. It was a sad day for me and not just because we were moving out of a house that I loved but Bill (or Willy as we call him) and Sharon (The SWINGERS as my kids call them!)are two of the most awesome people anyone could have for friends. They are always willing to help out and go above and beyond whenever they are needed. Things like Sharon going to my house before they did the open house (I was away)and baking cookies in my oven so the house would smell good and people could have cookies! This is just a small example of the types of things that they have done for us. Dan and I have had some of the best times in our lives hanging out with them. We all have the same sense of humor (which is kinda rare when you're married to Willy or Dan!). They have great kids too and are very close to them which reminds me of Dan and I with our own kids. Watching them with their kids used to make me miss mine so much. I've also watched them with other friends and they always go out of their way to help them out in any way possible. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've never come across friends quite like these and Dan and I appreciate them much more than they'll ever know. They've made being away from home so much easier for me especially. We had the opportunity to eat some awesome food and from that discovered our favorite dessert which Sharon went home and improved upon. It became the norm for us to go over and visit with them or come home after a night out and Sharon and Willy were always ready with warm chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate or butterscotch toppings. Put it all in a bowl....It's delicious!! Some of you may notice that Dan and I have gained a bit of weight......well, now you see why! Sharon would call sometimes at odd hours and say "Guess what I just made"....then I'd call her a bitch and tell her that I'd be right over :-) These are friends that we will keep for a lifetime. I feel so lucky to have met them and have them in our lives. Thank you Willy and Sharon. We love you guys!
PS - To set the record straight....NO, we are not SWINGERS kids!

26 & Counting......
Today is our 26th wedding anniversary. I can't believe how quickly time flies. We've certainly been through it all as far as I'm concerned and have managed to pull through with flying colors overall. We've experienced many things and have been lucky enough to travel quite a bit in our lives so far. Life has certainly not been boring! Our kids will be taking us to dinner tonight to celebrate. Thanks kids!!

Happy Birthday Dana!!

My brother Dana turns 42 today. He doesn't look a day over 48! HA HA! The first picture above was taken before we went to a family wedding many many years ago. The second picture is obviously old too. Dana was dressed in his snorkel coat. For those of you wondering what the heck that is, don't ask! Just take my word for it....they were very popular back in the 70's. Check out my matching vest and shirt. I think that's a picture of some bridge on the vest. Did my mother just like the color and not pay attention to what the picture was on the vest? Do you notice a color scheme? Anyway......Dana and Ann, thanks for all of your understanding, love and support over the past few weeks!! I hope you have an awesome birthday!

Our Last Trip Home.....
We are currently home in Rochester, packing up the house. It's been pretty crazy and we've been falling into bed at night, exhausted. I really wanted to bring some people here to help us but Dan insisted that this would be "a piece of cake". He's now having issues with his back and is wishing that he'd listened to me so at least I got to say "I told you so". That felt good and he acknowledged that I was right to begin with. That felt good! It's amazing how much stuff we've accumulated in the short time we've lived here. We made a big donation to the Salvation Army and will probably be making a 2nd one later this week. We've gotten rid of so many things in the past 5 years, it's hard to imagine what we did when we had to move out of the house in Gorham. The movers will be here on Saturday morning to load everything and we'll probably leave later that day and drive to Albany which is the 1/2 way point to travel to Maine. The dogs are staying in Maine with Dana and Ann. Dana spent the first night sleeping on the floor beside the dogs. I wish we could have gotten a picture of that one!
The job front is looking a bit more interesting, although not really in Maine. Dan has found several opportunities outside of Maine and we're not ruling them out but are hoping that we can figure something out closer to Maine. We'll give it a couple of months and then we'll have to make a decision. We gotta eat, ya know!
We'll be going out for a last dinner with our awesome neighbors on Friday night. They've been so great to us and have been taking care of the lawn, gathering boxes & newspapers and watching out for the house while we've been gone. I know I talk about how great they are a lot but many of you cannot imagine how good they've been to us over the past 18 months. I doubt that we'll ever find neighbors like this again so it makes me sad to think we're leaving the neighborhood. I'll post again soon!

Boxes anyone?
Dan and I will be returning to Rochester on Sunday to pack up the house. The plan is to pack everything ourselves and then the movers will be coming to load it all up and deliver it to Maine. Sharon and Bill have been gathering as many boxes as they can but I'm sure we'll need all that we can get. I'm also looking for newspaper to pack up the fragile stuff. If anyone has any of these items, let us know before we leave for New York or for those of you in Rochester, please let Sharon and Bill know and they can open up the garage for you to leave them in. We really appreciate the words of encouragement from everyone that we've received over the past two weeks. It really means a lot to us to know that we have great friends and family. I'm sure that things will get better for us but for now, all of these words help. This experience has made me glad that I've managed to stay grounded in my life and never take anything for granted. We're both hanging in there and trying to stay organized for the big move back to Maine. I've applied for 4 jobs so far so let's hope something develops. I'll be applying for more this week. Dan has a couple of things lined up as well so keep your fingers crossed for us. The dogs have adapted to life back in Maine and living with another dog. They all get along pretty well actually which surprises me but I'll take anything that goes well for us these days! Dan will be helping Gavin tear out the shower and tub in their bathroom this week. That ought to be quite interesting. Maybe Gavin will post some pictures on his site. I'll keep you all updated on things as they progress (hopefully they DO progress!)

In a nutshell.....
Okay...this will be brief and then I'm moving off the subject. To make it short and sweet, Danny has left his new position and we are moving back to Maine. I'll spare you the details. The house in Rochester will close as planned by the end of September. We're not quite sure how we're getting everything back to Maine but will be storing all of our stuff with family until we can find jobs and a new place to live. We are currently staying with Ann and Dana who have been awesome to us and we'll most likely spend some time at Stephen's house as well. It's times like this when you really appreciate your family. As you may imagine, this is a pretty difficult time for both Danny and I. He has worked since age 14 and has never been unemployed since then. I appreciate all of your words of encouragement. If you haven't heard from me personally, it's because I need a little more time to digest this situation. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'll continue blogging away and keep y'all updated as things progress.

The Future...

There is a very bumpy road ahead of us.....stay tuned

Life...

Some of you are probably thinking that life could be much worse for us. I know that it could but getting over the bumps can be really irritating also. Danny and I are well aware of how lucky we are and have been and NEVER take it for granted. We are thankful for everything and everybody in our lives.
Ella.....
Ella continues to recover. She is still on the pain medication and without it seems pretty uncomfortable. When I took her to the vet on Friday, he said that her eye looked better so if things continue to improve, I won't take her back to the vet until next Thursday. She has a really large divot (sp?) eye so I hope everything turns out okay for her. The owner of the kennel is in pretty tight with the vet and called him before I went in on Friday to be reassured that he didn't cause this. While I know that he probably couldn't have prevented the cause, he could have paid attention to the fact that my dog was suffering and only had one eye open for what must have been several days.
This week.....
I'll be focusing on wrapping some stuff up here at the house in Rochester like packing up the desk and cleaning out some junk. All of the plants will be going to the neighbors. Depending on how Ella is doing, I'm hoping to go back to Mass by the end of the week. Danny and I will be moving into a one bedroom apartment in the same complex at the end of the month. When we moved there, they didn't have a one bedroom available so we ended up paying $600 more. I hope the one bedroom is not any worse than the two bedroom that we're currently staying in! I'll post again soon!

Baylee and Ella

Dogs and Moving......

I arrived back in Rochester yesterday (Wednesday) to get the dogs out of the kennel and get some other things taken care of here. I was excited to pick the dogs up at the kennel yesterday because they had been boarded much longer then I've usually boarded them in the past. Everything (food, blanket and toys) was ready and waiting when I got there and they had my invoice all ready. They even put the dogs in the car for me. I wrote the check ($300.00) and left. When I got to the stop sign at the end of the road, I looked over at Ella and noticed that her face was all gunked up with something. I looked closer and saw that her right eye was closed up and VERY infected and it had all run down into the hair on her face. What a mess! I knew that her eye looked really bad so rather than go home, I took her straight to the vets office. They were closing but agreed to look at her after I explained her condition. The vet took one look and told me that she has a very bad ulcer on her eye and that it was deep and very serious. He also said that this was extremely painful for Ella. He examined her and put dye into her eye and looked at it under a black light. He cleaned it and put some ointment in and then gave me pain medication as well as an antibiotic and some ointment to put in her eye. He is very concerned that her eye is not going to respond to the medication. I have to take her back in on Friday morning to determine the next steps. If it's not better, she'll need to see an eye specialist. Right now she cannot see out of her eye at all and will hardly open it. As you can imagine, this was not a pleasant thing to come home to. I pay a lot of money for them to take good care of my dogs and I'm not happy. I made two calls to the kennel before the owner finally called me back. I told him the circumstances and also told him that I had stopped payment on the check that I wrote to him. He was apologetic but I told him that in this case, he cannot do enough for me to rectify this situation. It was obvious that Ella has been in pain for several days and it went unnoticed by him and his staff. This certainly adds to the stress of selling our house, buying another house and trying to organize a big move. Hopefully this will be a good outcome for Ella.

On a better note, we found a house! Not quite as fancy looking on the outside as our current house but much nicer inside. After looking at houses again this past weekend, Danny convinced me to go back to the solar panel house. I went back and decided that I really do like the house but wanted to have a few changes made to it. After talking to the builder and asking a lot of questions, we decided that it really is the ideal house for us. It's a colonial with 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. The master bedroom is huge and it's on the first floor which will be really nice for us. I'm finally getting a jacuzzi tub! I deserve it at this point!! The house is in a really nice quiet little town called Townsend. It's a typical small New England town. The energy savings are a plus too. It's about 2 hours from Portland which works for us. No more 8+ hour days on the road! Now for all of the paperwork and mess that goes along with it!! I'll post again in a few days.

Temporary Housing

We have arrived in Massachusetts and are staying in an apartment on the outskirts of Lowell. It's a two bedroom, which we don't need but they didn't have any one bedrooms available so we'll stick it out with this one until a one bedroom is available. It's just eh, okay. I'm kind of freaky about the cleanliness of the place so I've scrubbed it from top to bottom even though it's done on a weekly basis.
We went out on Sunday with a realtor here and looked at several houses, in different towns. Mostly new ones. The one that I liked is so awesome inside but kind of strange looking outside with a few ugly things nearby that I'm not crazy about looking at all of the time but the inside of the house is beyond what I would have expected to find for the money. We found another one that seemed pretty good to Dan but not so much to me. It is a "green" house which has solar panels on one side of the roof which keeps the electricity, including heat and air conditioning at a cost of $500 per year! I liked the house okay but wasn't crazy about the restrictions of not using certain fertilizers on the lawn and other limitations. They also really cheaped out in the kitchen and carpeting. Who knows, we may revisit them. I'm going out on Wednesday with the realtor to look at some other houses and then Dan and I will both go out again on Sunday.
Dan started his new job yesterday and ended up going to Vermont in the afternoon for three days! That means that I'm here in the apartment by myself until Wednesday night.....not what I had in mind but oh well, it comes with the territory I guess. I've managed to keep myself busy so far. I'll be going to Maine to visit on Thursday and coming back here on Sunday morning to go back out with the realtor again. Dan will be joining me in Maine on Friday night. I'm planning to go back to New York next Monday to get the dogs out of the kennel (poor things!) and manage the house selling process there. We've had some interest but are waiting for people to "crunch numbers" as they said to my realtor. Keep your fingers crossed! I'll post again soon.

Happy Birthday Pappy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPPY!

Today is my father's birthday. I won't give you the number since he thinks that he is so old. I'll just say that he's really not. I'm sure he'll be pleased to have his picture plastered on the internet......NOT! I hope you have a great day Dad. I love you and miss you very much!

On Saturday, we had a gathering at our house for the last time with neighbors and enjoyed some of Dan's halibut that he caught while fishing in Alaska. The past two summers have been great for us living in this neighborhood. We cannot say enough about how awesome our neighbors are! They have made living away from friends and family much easier because of their friendship and generousity. They go above and beyond to help us out whenever we've needed anything. Sometimes when we don't ask for any help, they just jump in and do things that they think we might need done. It has all been very much appreciated by us. If having great neighbors could sell our house, there would be a bidding war! The new owners of this house will be very lucky to have all of these people for their neighbors.

Bill was the fish cooker and he did a fantastic job. Even I (the non fish eater) liked it. Everyone brought a dish and we had a really good time. There was a lot of great food and also some really good frozen drinks (well, the ones that made it to the cups anyway!!). I tried to entertain everyone with music and I think I succeeded for the most part. We all know that when Sammy gets worn out, it's probably time to call it a day so we all cleaned up and everyone went home. We finished up all of the leftovers at Wendy & John's house the next afternoon for dinner.

Goodbye Greece!

Our house in Rochester is officially on the market today! Here's a link:

http://www.nothnagle.com/property/property.asp?PRM_MLSNumber=620797&PRM_MlsName=GRAR&VAR_SearchType=

Although we are excited that we'll be living closer to our family and friends, we have made some good friends here in Rochester too who we will miss a lot but hopefully they will come and visit us. Our current house is my favorite out of all of the houses we've lived in. It will be impossible to get something this nice in Massachusetts for the same money. Prices are at least double!! Dan and I were talking last night and figured out that the home above is the 5th home we've owned. WOW! I never thought we'd end up moving so much! I wish I could pick it up and take it with us....that would solve the issue of trying to find an affordable home. We are truly ready to settle down in one location now. We have learned to enjoy living away but miss our family and friends so much at times. Now we'll have the best of both worlds. We'll be able to have our friends and family visit us and entertain like we used to (we really miss that), go to Maine when we want to and then go back home and enjoy some quiet time. Dan is excited and ready to begin his new job. He has worked very hard for this position and to get us back to the northeast. I'll keep you all updated on our progress but hopefully it goes quickly and then I can count on some of you to come and help us unpack boxes on the other end!

Dan just returned from a trip to Alaska along with 3 friends, Charlie, Darryl and Leon. They had a great time fishing for halibut in Homer, king salmon in the Kenai river and touring the countryside. As you can see by the picture, he had quite an awesome adventure. Click on the link below to view all photos. With our new digital camera, Dan has found that he has a creative side for taking some really great pictures. Enjoy!

http://dansalaskavacation.shutterfly.com

Here is a video of Dan hauling in a 75 lb. sting ray. He got a good workout reeling this one in, as you'll hear from the audio!

The Beginning...

We've decided to join the blog party along with our family. It seems there are always major changes happening for us so hopefully that will keep this page interesting!

Dan has recently accepted a position with a company in Massachusetts! This is great news for us since we've been on what we like to call "on tour" for the past 4 years, leaving our family and friends back in Maine and moving to Austin and then on to upstate New York. While it has been a great experience for Dan and I overall, we miss our family and are happy to be moving much closer!