The Sweetest of Sweet......................

Last Wednesday night we took the kids to their church activities, ran some errands and then came back to the church and waited in the car for them to finish. I was looking/feeling pretty grubby at the time. I had been busy all day and didn't have time to change or shower before we ran into town. I figured that since I wasn't getting out of the van it really didn't matter. So, when one of Myshel's young women's leaders came running over to the car to talk to me, I was more than a little self-conscious. She introduced herself to me and told me that she was so excited to have Myshel in YW's and that she thought that Myshel was just beautiful and so much fun (which I agree with, but I'm a little bias). She was extremely sweet and I thought that was so nice of her to go out of her way to say such sweet things about my daughter. I almost forgot that I hadn't showered that day.......................

On Sunday the same lady spoke briefly in Relief Society. After the meetings I went and told her how much I appreciated and enjoyed her comments. She said thank you, and then said, Cindy, you are just so beautiful. She continued telling me that when she first saw Myshel she thought that she was stunning and when she met me on Wednesday night she knew right away where Myshel got her beautiful looks. She told me that Myshel looked just like me and that we were both so beautiful. She was completely genuine when she said it and I knew it came from her heart. I hardly knew what to say. I fumbled out a thank you, agreed with her that Myshel was a beautiful girl and told her that I wished I felt the same way about myself. She smiled and then we were interrupted by our kids. What a wonderful person to go out of her way to make me feel good about myself. I left church in a rather good mood.



(A little note for my look-a-like in Norfolk: Later, I told Myshel about what her leader had said about the two of us and Myshel got really quiet. She looked up at me, her eyes full of tears and told me that she(her leader) reminded her of Candy. I said, "yeah, she does have that sweet quality, doesn't she", and we both cried a little.--we love you and miss you)

Mary Engelbreit Monday

A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.

****Thomas Carlyle

What Pizza Are You?

Cheese Pizza

Traditional and comforting. You focus on living a quality life. You're not easily impressed with novelty. Yet, you easily impress others.

What's Your Pizza Personality?

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Portland Head Light

Two of my favorite things about Maine are the coastlines and the lighthouses. Last Saturday we went to Portland and had to go see the lighthouse. The kids loved climbing on the rocks and getting close to the water more than the lighthouse, but that's ok. I just loved being there.

Here We Go Again..............

Chad went back to work yesterday---On one hand that's not a good thing. I enjoy having Chad around all the time. I know a lot of women feel like their husbands just kind of get in the way after awhile and they don't know what to do with them, but I've never really felt that way. Chad and I have both said that if he could work from home that would be ideal. These last 6 weeks have been really nice and I'm just not ready for him to be gone during the day yet, of course, I'd never be ready. It's also bad because while on leave we haven't had to deal with too many "navy" things. When he goes back to work all that "stuff" will come flooding back into our lives.

On the other hand, though----it is a good thing. He has to go back to work, that's reality. And although it's been wonderful for us just being able to hang out with out, we also need to get back to some reality. We also need to get back into a more regular schedule, especially since we'll be moving again in about 3 weeks and the kids will start school shortly after that.

Last week we were offered housing---that's a good thing. It saves us money, actually a lot of money. The kids won't have to change schools in the middle of the school year AND we'll be in town and out of the woods (Myshel is the only one of my kids that's particularly happy about that one)

But that means--------
* I have to arrange another move (the second in 2 months) pretty much on my own............
*That's I'll have to register my kids in 3 different schools and fill out all that paperwork.
*I'll have to fill out the paperwork for our medical insurance, pick doctors and have the kid's shot records confirmed.
*I'll have to call auto insurance, and rental insurance and have it changed again...........not to mention the phone (which is a completely different company), and TV.
*I'll have to memorize a new address (the zip codes always get me).............a new phone number ................notify friends and family of these and change them in my handheld and cell phones again!
*I'll have to get ready for movers, pack what I want with me, unpack everything again. (actually I didn't unpack everything when we moved into this house, but still, you get thing picture)

BUT
*I'll be in town
*We'll feel more settled now that we know we won't be moving "sometime" in the next 6-9 months
*I can unpack all my pictures and nick-nacks that I didn't unpack here
*There's no snakes and frogs(at least not as many)
*We'll have great memories of our "summer" home
*Myshel and Vance will be within walking distance of their schools
*The commissary's just down the street
*And I'll have a whole lot more money in my pocket!

Mary Engelbreit Monday

(I love this one) Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.

---Victor Hugo

Harry Potter on the Brain..............................

I've spent almost all of my waking minutes since Saturday evening around 5PM trying to get through the last Harry Potter book. Chad was great about it and tried to help keep the kids busy while I read, but they still managed to come in every few minutes and distract me. It's hard to read around here with no interuptions. It also didn't help that Myshel was dying to get the book after me and kept coming to check on my progress or read over my shoulder (which I hate), as if "checking" on me was going to make me read faster. I have managed to finish the book, though. So, now I have all these Harry Potter conversations buzzing around in my brain and I can't say anything to anyone at my house until they finish reading it. It kind of makes me crazy, but at least I know what happens!

Back to Winter Harbor

Cool Slideshows!

Last Saturday we decided to take a trip back to Winter Harbor and see where we used to live and how much it has changed. It actually hasn't changed that much. It was fun to take the kids to Frazer Point and have them search the tidepools for crabs. That was one of my favorite places to go and we have lots of pictures of Myshel and Vance when they were younger tidepooling. Now, we have pictures of all of them out there. The kids loved it, I mean, LOVED it! We went to where the base used to be. It belongs to the national park service now, I think. We didn't make it to Mount Desert Island (Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park) we'll get that next time we go. We also went through Ellsworth, (saw the church finished, wow it looks great!) and up to Bangor and back down to Litchfield.

It was good for Chad and I to go up there and see everything again. It was lots of fun for us, but it also helped to put things back into perspective. We remembered all the great things about the area that we loved, but somehow forgot all the negative stuff. (which I think is pretty natural) Going back up there we remembered that it wasn't always a bed of roses and that even though Litchfield is out in the middle of nowhere, it's not nearly as bad as Winter Harbor was. Winter Harbor has it's own little town, but it is very isolated form everything else. When we lived up there we had someone tell us that we might complain about being up there, but that there would always be a little bit of Winter Harbor in our hearts, no matter where we ended up. I think that is very true. We still love that area, but it's not where we'd choose to stay..........maybe a summer home!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

About time................

I can stop complaining now. Our overflow shipment just got here. I don't know what condition it's in, but it's here. So, Vance doesn't have to sleep on the floor anymore............

Fed Up Doesn't Even Begin to Describe It................

When they packed us out in Virginia, they didn't have enough room in the truck for all of our stuff, so, they had to come back the next day to pick up the "overflow". It had the same guaranteed delivery date as our main shipment, June 20th. It's now July 13 and we still don't have our overflow delivery. We've talked to them many times between now and then, with not much progress. I talked to them on Wednesday when I was promised that our shipment would be delivered today. We called them around 2PM---our overflow shipment is in New York!!! I am so angry, I can't even tell you! I have nothing nice to say, so I'm not going to say anymore!

Passing along the fun...............

I saw this on a friend's blog and had to pass it along. All mother's should hear/see this! It's great! Even Chad got a kick out of it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlY8STkhopc

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY (on Thursday)

Driving to Maine...............

Washington DC TempleI know you've all been dying to hear about out trip up to Maine, so I thought this would be a good day to tell you all about it. Since we chose to stay a day longer in Warrenton, we were looking at having a very long day's drive up to Maine. And, just like everything else with this move, it was a struggle. We left town when we wanted to, but hit traffic within an hour. We needed to get to the capital beltway (the interstate that goes around DC) and then take it around until we hit I95. That was easier said than done. I don't ever really like to drive the beltway because the traffic is so heavy all the time anyway.

Maybe, I should back track a little here. We have 2 vehicles and the navy doesn't move any personal vehicles for you. So, that means that Chad had to drive one and I drove the other. This was probably one of the top things that I was dreading most about this move. I don't like driving, me driving, through big cities and heavy traffic, especially in places that I don't know. Chad and I have gone through lots of big cities together, with Chad driving, but I have never personnaly driven through them. (Except the capital beltway and some of the surrounding cities up there)

Now, knowing that we would have to drive the capital beltway, go through Philadelphia (which we found out later we could have gone around), drive the New Jersey turnpike, go through New York City, through Providence, and around Boston, I was having some major anxieties about this trip. And, Chad was following me, so I had to be the navigator, too.

Ok, back to the trip. We were in stop and go traffic, we hadn't even gotten to the beltway yet and Chad calls me. Noah's throwing up...................Unbelievable, huh. We really had no where to stop and after a short while Noah fell asleep. We decided to try and get to I95 before we stopped, but when I saw the exit that lead to the temple I decided to stop at the visitor's center and regroup.

Really, it was the perfect place to stop. We couldn't all go in together, because we had Nutmeg and it was so hot that we didn't want to leave her in the car even for a little bit. So we took turns going inside and seeing the visitor's center. Chad and I wished that we could stay longer. Just seeing the temple and being on the grounds was so peaceful and just felt so wonderful.

We managed to clean Noah up. Chad gave him a blessing, which was really neat on the temple grounds. We got resituated and were on our way again. I saw the temple in my rear view mirror, looking like it was floating above the trees. It was amazing. I wish I could say that it took my anxieties away, but it didn't. It was a much needed break, though, and I'm really glad that's where we stopped.

We managed to hit traffic practically everywhere we went. Philadelphia was pretty crazy and I really was not liking it. New York City was probably the worst, though. It was just completely insane. I just can't even put it in words that will do it jusdice--bumper to bumper, trying to get in the right lanes for the right exits. It was amazingly crazy traffic.

There was traffic in the cities, traffic from construction, traffic from accidents. I was really beginning to wonder if we were suppose to be making the trip at all. Noah never threw up again that day and that was a huge blessing. It was a very long day. We ended up staying outside of Providence for the night. We were exhausted and I was completely stressed out. We got in the hotel, ate a very late dinner, slept in our clothes and were out again before 7AM the next morning.

We hit traffic again throughout the moring, until we got to New Hampshire. The traffic definitely let up then. It was definitely good to see the Welcome to Maine sign. This is the first rest area in Maine and we stopped for a break and had to get a picture.

So, now we're here. We survived the trip, but if you've been reading, you already knew that. I know that for most people it wouldn't be that big of a deal to drive on their own, but for me, I didn't like it. It was really stressful to me. I have to say that I'm very proud of myself, though. I can now say that I personally have driven through all those places and I did a pretty good job of it, too, I think. I don't want to do it again, but still, I did it!

I've already told you about our house and we are starting to feel more settled. I think when Chad goes back to work then it will start to feel even more like normal, I hope. We're hoping that in the next couple weeks we'll be able to take a little drive up the coast to our "old stomping grounds" near Ellsworth/Winter Harbor/Bar Harbor. That would be fun. But, for now, we're here, we're getting settled and I don't have to drive through any big cities for a long time!

Mary Engelbreit Monday

We are all here for a spell, get all the good laughs you can. ***Will Rogers A few posts back I told you that we spent Father's Day in Warrenton, VA with my sister and her family. Since we were both living in hotels at the time, we decided to take the "dads" out for a nice dinner. They decided on Outback Steakhouse. What was suppose to be about a 45 minute wait turned out to be a lot longer. We stuck it out, though, and had a nice dinner together. Here's some pictures on us waiting outside and inside, once we were finally seated. Happy--very late--Father's Day to all you dads!

Our 4th of July

You might be wondering why there are no parade pictures, or BBQ pictures, or fireworks pictures, maybe because we're new to the area??? or we don't know anyone here yet??? or we did nothing to celebrate the 4th??? nope, nope and nope! To completely explain, we need to go back a few days, to Saturday.....................
I was in bed with a migraine, Chad went out and moved the lawn and then went to town with the kids. When he came home he was limping pretty bad. I asked what happened and he said he didn't know. He was getting into the truck and his upper leg/groin muscle just started hurting. By Saturday night he was barely walking. I asked him if he needed to go to the doctor and he assured me that he was fine. Sunday morning he joked that he was going to have me take him to the hospital, at least he acted like he was joking................
Monday he limped around trying to decide if it was bad enough to go and get it checked out. By that night we were looking online for the nearest hospital just in case and.................
Tuesday morning we were on on way to the emergency room. I don't know that I've ever seen Chad in so much pain. He couldn't sit, he couldn't stand, he couldn't lay down, and he could barely walk. He was quite miserable. I was worried; I think he was even worried. 3 hours later he was feeling a lot better, thanks to the vicadin they gave him. After taking x-rays that made him want to cry, checking for a hernia , having him try and move his leg even though he couldn't and calling him "limping guy", they sent him home with a diagnosis of a severe groin muscle strain and a prescription for vicadin. Ouch! He's suppose to be laying down, with an ice pack, for 3 days. I guess it takes a really long time for pulled groin muscles to heal, too. It's going to be a long recovery for Chad, especially since he's not the kind of guy that will just sit back and do nothing.
So, on the 4th of July, since Chad was limited on what he could/should do. We stayed at home. Our friends, that we knew from Virginia, came over for a BBQ (I forgot to get the camera out then--that's why there's no BBQ pics) and then we let the kids swim in the pool for awhile. They went home and we hung out, being rather lazy. That night we popped popcorn on the grill and roasted marshmellows and when it was dark we had lots of sparklers that the kids enjoyed. Then we watched fireworks on TV. It was a nice 4th of July even though we couldn't go to the parade or anything. We were just glad that we were all here as a family this year. We haven't had a 4th of July together in 5 years

Picnic in the Park in Warrenton

Cool Slideshows!

After we left Norfolk, we stopped in Warrenton, Virginia to visit with my sister and her family for a couple of days. They are also in the middle of moving. They were living in Bulgaria and after a short vacation in the states will be moving to Kiev. So, we obviously don't get to see them very much.

*

We really had really terrible luck, though. He hit unbelievable traffic trying to leave town on Saturday. I know those of you who know the area are all nodding, but this traffic was even worse than the norm! Seriously, it took us 3 hours to get about 40 miles from Norfolk! It was really really bad! So, we got to Warrenton really late and didn't have time with them the first night that we got there. We did have Sunday, Father's Day, to be with them and we had a nice picnic in the park, which is where these pictures are from. The second day we had planned to spend with them, their daughter ended up sick and we weren't able to spend a lot of time with them that day at all. So we didn't end up having nearly enough time with them at all, but we didn't have the option of staying any longer, either. I appreciated the time we did have. All the kids got alone great! And it's always so fun to see the cousins playing together. I got to visit with my sister at least for a little bit. I really miss her. Vance found a snake (I swear he's like a snake magnet!) and even Nutmeg got to come (even though we found a tick on her later, YUCK!) It was a fun day. I love them all so much and wish we could see them more often. I'll post a few more pictures later of our father's day dinner we shared together.

Myshel's 8th Grade Promotion

I can hardly believe that Myshel is old enough to have finished middle school, but she is and she did. She dressed up in our empty house, during the middle of moving and went to school for her promotion ceremony. Her dad went with her since someone had to wait for the movers (who didn't come on time, by the way, so I could have been there after all----makes me soooooooooooo mad!) Her dad said he almost cried just to see her so grown up, standing up there, so I know I would have cried. I'm really proud of Myshel. She's done really great in school, actually, she does really great with everything she does! I'm very blessed to have her as my daughter.

This is something else that almost made Chad cry that day. Myshel and her "boyfriend", William. I guess they were holding hands and Chad said he just wanted to cry. His little girl isn't so little anymore. Chad took this picture by the way!

There were so many things going on that last week, besides just the move......busy, busy, craziness!

My "Going Away" Luncheon

Candy and Jenna had a little luncheon for me with some of my friends before I moved. I thought that was so sweet of them. I didn't do a great job taking pictures of everyone, but the slide show has the pictures that I did take. Above is a picture of everyone except Candy's daughter, Kristian, who is taking the picture for me. I had a great visit with everyone and for many of them it was my last chance to say good-bye. I thought it was so nice of them to do this for me!

Mary Engelbreit (Tuesday???)

Joy is not in things, it is in us.

***Benjamin Franklin

Happy Independence Day!

How Cool!

I haven't updated my blog in about a month and come to find out that I've been given an award from Maine Mom! I think that is so cool, so now I get to give the award!


So let's see, I think that I will choose:
*
Candy---because she is so wonderful and is starting to post more often (and I miss her tons)
Marie---because she is definitely my rockin' girl blogger!
Jen---because she has been putting lots of fun things on her blog and posted tons more than I have in the last month

I'm still alive and I'm back online!!!

Ok, I apologize to you all, who have been wonderng where/what I've been up to. My life have been completely insane and I'm sorry that I worried any one. This will have to be quick for now, but I promise I'll catch you all up. It will also take some time for me to catch up with all of you, but I'm ready to get started.

The week of packing out was ridiculously busy and overwhelming and without internet. After we left Norfolk, we stayed in northern Virginia for a few days visiting with my sister (and staying in a hotel) I don't remember which day we arrived in Maine, I'd have to look at my calendar. We had a house set up to move into, which I was thinking was a good thing, but have had some second thoughts about it. It will be fine and we won't be here for a long time either. It's small, especially for what we were used to, but fine. It's in the woods, though, I mean serisouly in the woods! (I love you Joey, but seriously do not know how you do it) I think I've been living in the city for too long, because this "woods" setting is not for me. My kids love it, though. Vance, McKaylie and Noah have been catching grasshoppers, bugs, frogs, and snakes (yes, snakes! and another reason why the woods are not for me) since the day we got here. We live about 22 miles from anything that resembles a town. Luckily we won't be here for more than 6 months or so, when we will be in housing in Brunswick or Topsham. I don't want to seem completely negative about the whole thing, but if ever I was out of my element, it's now living in the Maine woods. I didn't think that we could isolate ourselves any more than we were when we lived in Winter Harbor, Maine, but I was wrong, Litchfield is much more isolated. We are settled as best we can be, though, and you'll have to keep checking back in with me to hear about all the details.