Christmas Vacation

We've had a very relaxing break so far. It has included:

Lots of reading and couch time for me

Hours of happily working on building guitar amps for my husband

Lots of cooking - vegetable pot pie, mac & cheese, peanut butter blossoms

And lots of dishes...

We've also gone out to breakfast the past two mornings and I spent yesterday afternoon with my mom - we saw a great exhibit on quilts at the NH Historical Society Museum then we went out to lunch at The Barley House. In between these little outings, we've been happily hibernating in our apartment and just enjoying the time to do whatever we want. We're meeting my family for dinner tonight at Fratellos in Manchester, then Bob and I leave tomorrow morning for 3 days in Bar Harbor. We can't wait!

Hooray for Christmas vacation - much needed and much appreciated!!

2010 in Review

Its been quite a year for us and I thought it would be fun to look back through our pictures and document the past year in photos. You'll see that we had a busy summer with lots of traveling and adventures, so I had to include multiple pictures for the summer months. Its been an incredible year and I know we will always look back on it with joy as we remember the beginning of our love story. Here's to many wonderful years ahead with my love and a Happy 2011 to all of you!

Our First Married Christmas

We had a wonderful first Christmas together (we were dating last Christmas, but we'd only been together about a month and we spent the holiday apart), despite both of us feeling pretty lousy and valiantly fighting the flu.

We spent Christmas at my mom's house in Hillsboro, along with Marc, Erin, and Erin's kids Logan and Myley. Bob and I were actually the first ones up on Christmas morning, thanks to an uncomfortable mattress, so I headed downstairs around 6:30am to take some photos of the tree. Santa had definitely arrived and I couldn't wait for the kids to come down and see everything. Mom and Bob both came down soon after and we patiently waited until we heard little feet upstairs. Logan was the first one up and he and I went upstairs to get his mom, Marc and Myley.

It was insanely crazy once we started opening presents, but we loved every minute of it. Logan went to town on all his gifts, and helped the rest of us open ours as well. Myley camped out on the couch with Bob and I and happily opened her gifts one by one. She was much more interested in playing with them in between opening, so we actually had to keep her moving with the opening or we would have been there all day.

It is pretty amazing to think how much our family has changed in a year. Check out my old blog to see my post from last Christmas when Mom, Marc and I were in Quebec. We went from a family of three to a family of seven in 12 short months and we couldn't be happier!

Creativity

I've been in creative-mode lately. I'm working on some Christmas gifts and have been doing a lot of sewing, which I love. Amanda and I made plans to get together yesterday to craft, but I woke up wanting to cook and bake too.

I made this cake for Amanda to celebrate her birthday. I also made vegetable pot pie for lunch - so yummy!!

My finished holiday banner - I love it!!! Thanks to Amanda for teaching me how to do the stitching around the letter.

Our crafting day yesterday has inspired me to spend today sewing too - I'm working on a couple of quilts and an apron for Bob (a very manly apron, of course - the fabric actually has guitars on it and is really cool). And I'm going to cook - Tofurkey in the LeCreuset!

Professional Wedding Photos

Thank you to our wonderful photographer Jane for capturing our perfect day. We love every photo!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my mom's house with my grandparents and Marc and Erin and the kids. The kids were a ton of fun and we had a great time being together. Bob and I enjoyed celebrating our first Thanksgiving together (we were technically "together"last Thanksgiving, but it had only been a few weeks and he was recovering from his surgery, so we hadn't seen each other in a little while) and look forward to many more. We have a lot to be thankful for and we are aware of that every day, but it was nice to offer special thanks on Thanksgiving.

10 Things... Saturday

This week had some very, very rough moments and felt incredibly long, so I thought it would be good to force myself to do a Top 10 list and remind myself of what was good this week. So here is my Top 10 List of things I'm thankful for this week:

1. The peanut butter blossom cookies I made last night. They are my favorite cookies, but I don't usually make them until Christmas. I felt like baking when I got home last night and they were calling to me. They taste so good!!

2. Friday night home with my husband. I was at school three nights this week, so by the time Friday rolled around it felt so good to be home and not have to go back out again.

3. Two great band rehearsals. At the end of class on Tuesday, at least 3 kids came up to me and told me how fun and the rehearsal had been. We got a ton of work done and had a great time doing it!

4. Seeing my friend Christin today at All State auditions. She is the choral teacher at Newport High School and I miss having such a wonderful colleague. It was so nice to see her!

5. My phone date with Karisti. We hadn't had a chance to talk since she was here for the wedding, so it was nice to finally catch up.

6. Ordering our wedding photos and album. I can't wait for them to arrive!!!

7. Watching Food Network and looking forward to all the yummy food at Thanksgiving.

8. My amazing husband who takes good care of me and reminds me that I'm safe and loved. I am a lucky girl.

Okay, I didn't quite come up with 10 things, but trust me, a list of 8 good things from this week is a big accomplishment. I'm glad this week is over and I'm looking forward to only one day of school this week (I'm taking some students to a band festival on Monday and Wednesday is a workshop day, so I only have school on Tuesday), then a few days off.

October 2010

Here is a quick recap of our wonderful month of October - it started with our wedding on October 2nd and ended today with Bob's birthday. We've had a great month - we saw both Josh Ritter and the Indigo Girls in concert, we spent time at Lougee Pond, we spent time with Sarah and Reg and the dogs, and had an awesome birthday weekend for Bob. And to top it off, we're looking forward to celebrating our one month anniversary on Tuesday!

Indigo Girls

Bob and I saw the Indigo Girls on Friday night at the Portsmouth Music Hall and it was amazing!! They put on a great concert and I loved every minute of it. They played a lot of older, classic songs and I, along with most of the audience, sang along to every one. I tried to take video of Power of Two, but only got these couple of seconds before an usher from the Music Hall shut me down.

The Indigo Girls also shared their set list from Friday night on Facebook, so I thought I'd include that here as well so you can see the songs they did.

Our Honeymoon

Yes, this is the day of catch up as I realized I never blogged about our honeymoon. We had a wonderful time away and feel very lucky that we were able to take an entire week off from school at the beginning of October. A huge thank you to Sarah Evans for subbing for me for the week and being so fabulous!

Highlights of our honeymoon:

Waking up to a beautiful morning at York Beach on our first day as husband and wife. We spent the first night of our honeymoon at the Union Bluff Hotel on Short Sands and it was wonderful. We had breakfast and walked on the beach, then hit the road for...


Bar Harbor where this was our view from the balcony of our room at the Bar Harbor Inn. It was gorgeous and we loved sitting on the balcony and watching the world go by in the harbor. We spent two nights in Bar Harbor and had a great time...


Eating pizza at Rosalie's...


Visiting Sand Beach...


Driving along the Park Loop Road...


And going to the top of Cadillac Mountain.


We spent the fourth night of our honeymoon at the Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor, which was gorgeous and relaxing...


We also wandered around the Asticou Gardens across the street from the Inn, which are definitely a hidden jewel of Northeast Harbor...


After leaving Northeast Harbor, we took a little side trip to Georges Pond. The loon even came to say hi to us as we stood on the shore. It was incredible...


We spent the last night of our honeymoon at a cozy bed and breakfast in Freeport. It was pouring rain the whole time we were there, so we didn't venture out very much.

We had a wonderful honeymoon and we're so happy we could spend it in Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island, a place we love so much. We can't wait to be back there this summer!

Life After The Wedding...

Amazingly enough, there has been a life post-wedding. It was nice to have the wedding go well, and even better to not have to think about the planning for it anymore! I knew that it was consuming my life for the few months leading up to the big day, but I don't think I realized how much until it was over and I didn't have to worry about it anymore. Of course, all the craziness of school has managed to step up and fill the time void left by the wedding. I feel like I'm finally able to start the school year for real now and it has been nuts! We've both been very busy and just trying to stay on top of things. Our honeymoon feels like a million years ago and we are eagerly looking forward to Thanksgiving break, Christmas vacation, and (we hope) a lot of snow days this winter!

One of the highlights of the past few weeks was seeing Josh Ritter in concert in Portland, ME last Friday night. We love him and he put on an amazing show!!! We were in the 4th row and it was pretty incredible. My camera battery died when we got there, so I was only able to take photos and video on my phone and it isn't quite as snazzy as the iPhone, so they aren't great, but here are a few...

Words Escape Me...

Its been a busy three weeks since the wedding and I've been slacking on blogging lately, but I'd really like to get back in the habit of writing and sharing what's going on. I think I've also felt some (self-induced) pressure to blog about the wedding, but I haven't found the words to describe the day. It was perfect, wonderful, amazing, incredible, and beautiful but that doesn't even begin to share with you how the day really was. We loved every minute of our wedding day and are so happy to have beautiful memories to look back on. We're very thankful for everyone who was there to share the day with us. I loved looking around the room and seeing all the important people from every different part of my life: family, Epping, Berlin, Wanakee, and Bow (Reada couldn't be there so Peru wasn't represented, but I know she was there in spirit). It felt amazing to know they were there to witness Bob and I starting our married life together. We feel incredibly lucky to have found each other and to be able to share our happiness with everyone we love.

Its been fun to look at everyone's wedding pictures over the past few weeks. Below is one of my favorites - thanks to Karisti for sharing it. I love the way we're looking at each other and I think this perfectly captures the way we were feeling as we exchanged rings.


I'm sure I'll continue to attempt to put the whole wedding experience into words, but I'm also okay with never quite succeeding. I like that it was beyond words - that's how it felt when we were in the moment of the day. Bob and I still look at each other every day and marvel over the fact that we are married and we get to be together forever.

Our Wedding

Our wedding was the most incredible, perfect day! I've been wanting to write a post about it all week, but haven't managed to come down off of cloud nine yet. Instead, I'll share with you the links to our professional photos:

Bob & Michelle, Part 1

Bob & Michelle, Part 2

The password for both albums is "hedding". Enjoy!!

Catch Up

Wow, I've been a slacker in my blog posts lately! I'm going to blame it all on the start school and hope that once the wedding is over and I'm truly in the groove of school that I'll be better about posting.

In attempt at catch up, here is a list of things we've been up to in the last couple of weeks:

• A fun day of mini-golf and dinner with Lisa, Sean & Victoria a few Sundays ago
• Apple picking at Apple Hill Farm. The Cortlands are so yummy and I'm trying to be patient as I wait for the Macouns to be ready.
• Starting school - yes, I'm actually including this as a positive thing on the list. Its amazing the difference a year makes - when I think back to how stressful and awful the start of school was last year, I'm even more grateful that this year is off to a good start. Low stress, just lots of work. Its nice to be with the kids again and I'm excited about all the things we're doing this year.
• Celebrating Robin's birthday with the family last week. It was nice to see Bob's family and have an afternoon of hanging out and eating food.

And we have a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks:

• THE WEDDING!!!!! Its 2 weeks from Saturday and we're super excited! We're meeting the caterer at the reception site today and finishing up all the last minute details.
• Our honeymoon!! We're both VERY ready for a week off from school and we're looking forward to being up in Bar Harbor. It will be nice to be away and to be in a place we love so much.
  
• Hanging out with Sarah & Reg's dogs this weekend. Sarah & Reg are on vacation for the next 10 days and have asked us to doggie-sit until Monday. We're pretty desperate for a dog of our own as soon as possible, so 3 days with Annabelle, Bentley and Jake will be a good dog fix.

And coming up after the wedding (yes, I can think beyond the next 2 weeks!):

• Seeing the Indigo Girls and Josh Ritter (in separate concerts) at the end of October. Bob has never seen either of them and I'm really excited for us to go together.
• Bob's birthday - its a big one and I'm looking forward to sharing it with him. No big plans yet, but I'm ready to make a big deal of it. :)
  

Family Reunion in Michigan

Bob and I spent an amazing weekend in Marquette, Michigan - yes, random, I know but his family was having a reunion and we wanted to be there. No one in Bob's family knew anyone in this family until a few months ago when Bob's brother connected with one of his cousins on Ancestry.com. Bob's dad was given up for adoption when he was young and the family we met was his biological family. It is a long and painful story, but the Booker family was very happy to finally meet Bob and be connected with Jerry Booker/Richard Duncan's children (Bob's dad's name was changed when he was adopted). It was pretty emotional to meet everyone and to see Bob with his new relatives. One of his dad's sisters was at the reunion and was in tears the whole time she was speaking to Bob.

We spent Saturday evening exploring Marquettte and falling in love with this little city. It is right on Lake Superior and is a beautiful place. The coastline is gorgeous and we loved walking along the beaches. I've truly never found a place I think is as beautiful as Downeast Maine, but this part of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan might be a very, very close second. Both Bob and I could picture ourselves living here. Would anyone visit us if we moved to the UP?? ;)

Check out our photos, and the post below with some video of the lake, and enjoy a little taste of beautiful Michigan!

Videos from Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan

We spent a beautiful evening along Lake Superior. It was gorgeous and we loved being on the water. It was a lot different than Georges Pond!!



We also walked along one of the breakaways. The light was beautiful and the moon was starting to come out.

Georges Pond...

... is the most beautiful place in the world

Top Ten

Its only Monday, but we're having a wonderful time up in Maine, so I thought it was only fitting that George's Pond gets its own top ten list. So here is a list of my Top 10 Favorite Things About George's Pond:

1. Hearing the loons call across the pond at all hours of the day

2. Kayaking multiple times a day

3. Watching Bob fish and seeing the joy he gets out of it even when he doesn't catch many fish

4. Sitting on the porch reading books

5. The view from the porch - the most perfect view in the world

6. Campfires by the water at night and getting to eat 'smores

7. Eating all our meals outside on the porch

8. Seeing the sun set behind the island

9. The ducks who visit us on the beach every night to get their fill of bread and crackers

10. Kayaking - I know I mentioned it already, but I really, really love it!

I'll post photos when we get home on Wednesday or Thursday. We have internet here, but the connection is too slow to try to download photos.

Bridal Shower

I am very lucky to have some pretty incredible, amazing women in my life who inspire me, guide me and love me for who I am. Yesterday I got to see many of them in the same room and have them wish me well and celebrate my upcoming marriage. It was a wonderful experience. Scanning the room from left to right, I saw ...

... my future in-laws who have welcomed me into their family with open arms and who are an amazing group of beautiful women

... my friends from Bow who knew both Bob and I separately before we ever became "Bob and Michelle" and who have loved watching our relationship grow

... my "2nd mom" and my childhood best friend who are wrapped up in every memory I have of my childhood

... my best friend's mother who is one of the most loving, kind-hearted, sweet women I know, which explains why her daughter is so amazing and such a good friend

... my strong, bold friend from Berlin who knows what it is like to madly love that wonderful city and who went off on many adventures around Europe with me

... my Wanakee girls who shared the craziness of last summer with me and who have remained such good friends

.. my Wanakee "mama" who saw good things in me, taught me about myself, and continues to inspire me to be a better woman

... my cousins, aunts and great aunts, and my beautiful, amazing Mimi who have been there for every important event of my life and who have loved and supported me

... my girls, Victoria and Lisa, who are amazing friends and who have helped make all these wedding festivities so special. Thanks for accepting Bob into our little family and being so wonderful to him.

... my best friend and maid of honor, Sarah, who is the sister of my heart - I can't imagine having anyone else standing beside me on my wedding day. I am so thankful for all you've done for me - I've loved my parties!

... my mom, who is the strongest, most beautiful, amazing woman I know and who is pretty excited to be getting a son-in-law. I love you!!!

Thanks to Amanda and Judi for taking pictures at the shower!

It's Not Thursday, But I Have A List Anyway

Bob and I have been very busy lately doing all kinds of fun things, so even though it is not Thursday, I thought I would share a list with you today. So here is the Top 10 Fun Things We've Done In The Past Few Weeks:

1. Mailed our wedding invitations. The wedding is 2 months from today!

2. Cooked with our new fun wedding gifts: griddle, food processor, and ice cream maker. We really like the things we put on our registries and we've loved getting gifts and putting them to good use. Thank you, thank you to everyone who has gotten us cool stuff from our registries!

3. Got new furniture. Our couch fiasco aside (that is another post for another day...), we got a beautiful dining room table and are waiting on a couch that will actually fit in our apartment.

4. Went to the Fisher Cats game with David, Deb, and Isabel. We all taught together in Peru and they are now in Zambia, but Deb is originally from NH so we try to see each other when they are home. It was great to catch up with them and introduce them to Bob. It was blazing hot at the game and it was a no-score game until the bottom of the 11th inning, but it ended with a Fisher Cats homerun to win, so it was well worth staying!

5. Had lobster (ok, that part was better for Bob than it was for me) with my family on Friday night at Hedding. Marc bought 10 lobsters and he, Erin, Bob and Mom had a feast. The kids and I enjoyed the corn and the french fries! :)

6. Looked at a house in Hillsboro. We have no intention of buying it, but it was fun to dream for a few minutes. The house had caught our attention when we were visiting Mom and when we saw that it was listed for only $121,000, we decided to check it out. It was a very cool house, but it needed SO MUCH WORK!! I've never seen anything like it, that's for sure. It would have taken us many years and a lot of money to renovate the house and that's not really what we want to get ourselves into right now, but it was still fun to look.

7. Went to the Common Man for afternoon drinks and snacks. We love to go and sit at the bar and read Trivial Pursuit cards - the simple joys in life!

8. Spent the day at Lougee Pond with Bob's family - see my post below.

9. Went fishing at Rye Beach with Bob's brother and nephew.

10. Just spent lots of good time together, which is always the best.

Family Day On Lougee Pond

We spent a wonderful day at Lougee Pond with Bob's family. Bob and his siblings grew up on this pond and have so many great stories about the time they spent here. It was fun to all be together and to just relax by the water.

Bachelorette Weekend

I'm a very lucky girl, that's for sure. Not only do I get to marry the man of my dreams, but I have incredible friends who want to celebrate this with me! Sarah, my wonderful, fabulous, generous, thoughtful maid of honor (she is technically a "matron" of honor but we both think that "matron" just doesn't fit her) planned an incredibly fun bachelorette weekend for me. She was determined to keep the whole weekend a secret from me and I think a lot if her joy over the course of the weekend was watching me, her type-A, control freak, always-the-planner friend, not know what was going on and just have to go with the flow. It was a good change for me!

Sarah picked me up at 2:30 on Friday afternoon, having told me nothing about where we were going, only what to pack and what to wear. We ended up at Hedding, which was our home base for the weekend. It worked out perfectly - we used Sarah's cottage and our cottage and it was nice to be someplace familiar and someplace where we could just relax when we wanted to. Friday night's festivities involved dinner with my girls - Sarah, Victoria, Lisa and Kristina. Lisa had flown Kristina home from Iowa for the weekend so she could be with us and it was so nice to just all be together. We had a very yummy dinner at Zampas, then went back to Sarah's cottage and played games and laughed and laughed. It was a lot of fun!

Nicole, Michelle, Becky and Sarah joined us for Saturday night and we had a great time going out in Portsmouth! I sported a lovely veil and bride sash all night and got lots of congratulations from people as we walked by. We started out the evening with a harbor cruise, then carried on to...

... dinner at The Blue Mermaid! It was super yummy and the drinks were great. After dinner we did the obligatory bar-hopping in Portsmouth - The Coat of Arms, The Brewery, The Rusty Hammer, and The Red Door. Lots of fun was had by all!

Here is a link to the rest of my pictures from the weekend: Bachelorette Weekend

Thank you girls for making my weekend so great and a special thanks to Sarah, with help from Victoria and Lisa, for planning such a fun time! You all are the best and I love you very much!

Special Guests

One of the best things about Footnotes is our annual "Special Guests" when we bring in someone, or multiple people, to perform for our campers on Tuesday night. This year we were lucky enough to see a staged reading of "Godspell" performed by professional actors from Portsmouth. It was incredible, as the videos below will show!





My beautiful friend Sarah

And the incredibly talented Becky Rudolf - the brains behind this operation. :)

10 Things Thursday

I just got back from spending a week at Wanakee directing Footnotes, so here is a list of 10 things I love about Wanakee:

1. Watching the sunset over the lake while swimming at the waterfront

2. Singing 3 songs after every meal - why can't we do this in everyday life? I think we'd all be a lot happier! :)

3. Sitting in the back of the dining hall and remembering what it felt to sit in that same spot when I was a little kid at Wanakee

4. Flying squirrels in the dining hall

5. Having my day revolve around a bell that rings 4 times a day to announce wake up and the 3 meals

6. The Allelus on Friday night - singing up and down the hill to put a cap on the week

7. Being able to hang out with Kerri-Lynn, Becky, and Sue for an entire week

8. Getting invited to cookouts and campfires - yummy food that we don't have to cook!

9. The incredible feeling I get standing in front of the Footnotes campers and conducting them as they sing the concert - it is truly the best feeling in the world.

10. Knowing after this summer that no matter what happens, I can still come back to camp and direct Footnotes and have a great week. It is still one of my most favorite places in the world and I'm lucky to have it.

Fourth of July

Our 4th of July adventures continued in the afternoon when we went to Anne and Seames' annual 4th of July party at their house in Dover. Now, for those of you who haven't heard the story, I have a good one for you...

A few months ago Bob and I were driving to Berwick to visit my grandparents and on the way we stopped at an intersection in Dover where Bob mentioned that his cousin Seames and his wife Anne lived down the road. I told him that I knew an Anne and Seames who lived down that road and within seconds we had discovered that his cousin Seames is married to my friend Lisa's sister Anne. Does that make sense? We were both shocked and little freaked out by it and I immediately called Lisa to tell her that we were going to be related. Yep, once Bob and I get married, Lisa (who I met at Wanakee and have been friends with since 1996) and I will be related by marriage. Pretty crazy, huh? Bob and I both still marvel at the fact that we both knew Anne and Seames separately before we knew each other. Bob was even at their wedding, so he met Lisa's parents who I've known forever as well! It is a VERY, VERY, VERY small world. We think there is even a possibility Bob and I might have been at Anne and Seames house at the same time at some point back in the late 90s when Lisa and I were at UNH and hanging out in Dover and Bob and Seames were geeking out on computer stuff. Crazy...

Needless to say, it was very fun to all be together for the 4th of July - Anne, Seames, me, Bob, Lisa, Lisa's parents, Seames' brother Roy, Bob's aunt - one big happy family! :) We can't wait to have our two worlds mix again at the wedding - I wonder if Lisa will sit with the Wanakee people on my side of the aisle or with Seames and Anne on Bob's side...??

The party was great and we had a really good time - great food, great company, very relaxed. On our drive home we saw this amazing sunset. The perfect end to a great day!

First Sunday in Hillsboro

Today was Mom's first Sunday in Hillsboro, so we were good kids and all went to church. This meant me, Bob, Marc, his girlfriend Erin, and her two little kids, Logan and Myley. It was nice to be in the new church and everyone seemed really friendly. Mom used us as a sermon illustration and preached a really good sermon about birth and starting new. It was nice to all be there together to support her and have everyone see her family - now they know we really exist!

After church we went back to Mom's house for lunch. Logan and Myley are super cute and had a great time running around the big house. At one point we were all sitting in the living room and Myley, who is almost 2, started to come over to sit with me on the couch. When Logan, who is 4, saw that, he immediately came over and tried to sit next to me instead. I joked with him and told him that I was sitting on the girls couch so he should go sit on the boys couch with Marc. Logan is a smart little kid who doesn't miss a trick, so later when Bob came into the room, he went to sit with me on the couch and Logan immediately piped up that Bob was about to sit on the girls couch and he should come sit on the boys couch with Marc and Logan instead. He was pretty insistent on it and luckily Bob is a good sport, so here are the boys on the "boys couch".

The kids were really good all morning and we loved getting to know them. Myley is the sweetest little smiley girl and she is a big fan of my brother. By the time we were all getting ready to leave, she was exhausted and snuggled up to Marc to have a little rest.

It was a great morning and was really nice to all be together!

At Lougee Pond

Bob spent 10 years of his childhood living in Barnstead. He's taken me out there a couple of times to show me where he lived and to check out Lougee Pond. This beautiful pond is basically across the road from the house he lived in and he and his brothers and sister spent a huge part of their childhood swimming, fishing and playing at this pond.

We decided to go there this weekend and see what it was like. The first day we went it was kind of chilly, so we just put our feet in the water and checked out the loon. It was incredibly gorgeous and so very peaceful (we were the only ones there). We both loved being there!

On Saturday we decided we would try swimming at Lougee Pond since it was so warm. We ended up buying tubes and spent a couple of hours floating around the pond. It was so much fun! The water was the perfect temperature and it was so relaxing to just float around and enjoy the water and the sun. We're already planning on going back tomorrow and using our tubes again!

10 Things Thursday

Here is this week's list:

1. Sitting with Bob on the pier in Northeast Harbor, watching everyone get on and off the boats and making up stories about them.

2. Getting to eat yummy falafel twice in 2 days.

3. Getting to eat said falafel outside both times - I love restaurants with outdoor seating.

4. Helping Mom move into her new house in Hillsboro. Its beautiful and I'm excited to spend more time there. Plus it is nice having her close by.

5. Finding someone to store my piano for the next couple of years. Mom moved it to Hillsboro, but it wouldn't fit through the doors in her new (very old) house. We had to store it in the garage and I spent the next 24 hours stressing about what to do with the piano, until I went to school on Wednesday and mentioned to my department head that I was trying to figure out what I could do with my piano. She immediately volunteered to take it - her daughters want to learn to play and they were going to buy a keyboard. This works out much better! She and her family will store it for me for the next 2 years until our current apartment lease is up, then we'll figure out what to do with it. I'm so thankful it has a good home!

6. Shopping today with Mom and helping her pick out her mother-of-the-bride dress. It is a beautiful suit and I love it!

7. Buying Christel her flower girl dress. We went to David's Bridal today and she got to try on dresses. She was super cute and kept dancing around in the dresses and looking at herself in the mirror. I love the dress we picked out and I can't wait to see her on the day of the wedding.

8. Mom bought us one of our china and silverware place settings and I love it! It is being shipped to our house from Macy's and I can't wait to see it. I really love the china pattern we chose and it will fun to have a place setting.

9. Getting excited about Footnotes. I go to Wanakee next weekend and I'm really looking forward to being there for the week.

10. Meeting with my drum majors on Wednesday at school. Willie and Rachel are great and I'm looking forward to working with them next year.

New House in Hillsboro

Mom moved to Hillsboro on Tuesday and Bob and I went over to help her unpack and get organized. We're really excited to have her close by and were glad we were able to help her out.

The youth group from Mom's new church "flocks" people around town each week and Mom's yard had been flocked when she arrived Tuesday morning.

The house is beautiful! Three floors and lots of character. The minute we arrived, Bob and I explored the place and we love it! It will be fun to see Mom get settled and have the house become hers. I'm sure we'll spend lots of good time there.

One of the best things about the new house is the beautiful porches. Mom loves them and I'm sure they will be beautiful with all her flowers on them. Here she is with a big, but very tired, smile as we were leaving. It had been a very long day, but she is back in NH!

Weekend in Corinth

Bob and I finished up our first week of summer vacation with a trip to Maine. Our primary reason for going up was to help Mom pack up the house in Corinth and be there for her last Sunday, but we also got in a trip to Bar Harbor, which is never a bad thing.

It was a bit surreal to be in Corinth and to say goodbye to that place. I lived there for 3 of the most difficult months of my life (not difficult solely because I was living there, but because of a myriad of circumstances beyond my control), but I also have wonderful memories of the people in Mom's church who were so good to me and who cared so much about Mom and me.

Spending Saturday on Mount Desert Island was wonderful and a very good distraction for Mom. We are lucky to have a place that brings us so much joy. And Bob definitely belongs in our family - he loves it too! We took him to the top of Cadillac Mountain and enjoyed the beautiful views. And he had his first taste of the amazing pizza at Rosalie's in Bar Harbor. We also went to Northeast Harbor (Mom's favorite place on the island) and sat on the pier and watched the world go by. It was a perfect day!

10 Things Thursday

I'm trying to be better about keeping up with this, plus it is nice to look back at things that were good during the week, so here is my list of 10 things that have made me happy this week:

1. School is done!!!! I think I mentioned this last week, but at that point we still had one day left, so I think it is okay to include it on the list this week too.

2. There are only 100 days until the wedding! The countdown is on and we are so excited. October 2nd can't come soon enough, as far as we are concerned.

3. Getting our first official wedding gift! Karen sent us the blender/food processor from our Macy's registry and we love it. It was such a nice surprise when the doorbell rang yesterday and there was the UPS man with a big box from Macy's. Thanks Karen!!

4. The incredibly yummy food Bob has been making lately - as I write this, he is making potatoes and onions, plus cucumbers, snap peas, and veggie burgers, for dinner. And last night he made the most amazing homemade spaghetti sauce.

5. Speaking of food, our CSA share has been very yummy too. This week we got strawberries, tomatoes, snap peas, lettuce, garlic snapes, and scallions. It is so fun to go every Wednesday and see what we'll get and think of what we can make with it. We're really excited about eating healthy and local this summer.

6. Our amazing time at Hedding. It was perfect - there is nothing more I can say about it.

7. The anticipation of eating at Rosalie's Pizza in Bar Harbor on Saturday. This is my favorite pizza place in the whole world and I can't wait for Bob to experience it.

8. Our trip to Maine this weekend - we're going up for Mom's last Sunday at her church in Corinth and we're looking forward to being with her for the weekend.

9. Pink lemonade - we made some today and I'm hooked. Such a good summer drink!

10. A lovely chat with Victoria last night - it was so nice to catch up, so thanks for calling!

Weekend At Hedding

Bob and I were lucky enough to spend a wonderful, relaxing weekend at Hedding. Actually, it was more of an extended weekend - we arrived on Saturday and just got home today (Wednesday). We both decided it was the perfect way to start summer vacation - getting away made it actually feel like vacation instead of just staying at home. And we are very lucky to have Hedding to go to, so thanks to Mom for sharing it with us.

We had a good balance of chilling on the front porch and going out and doing things. We spent a great day in York, walking on the beach, buying saltwater taffy, checking out the area where Bob lived when he was a kid, and... booking a hotel room for the first night of our honeymoon! I forgot to take a picture of the hotel, but here is a link to the website: Union Bluff Hotel

Overall, it was a perfect couple of days. We grilled (ok, Bob grilled and I ate the yummy results), read books and magazines, took walks, made plans for renovations we want to do at Hedding, and just had some lovely time to ourselves. It was hard to come back home today, but we're already looking forward to when we can go back to Hedding and spend more time there.

Birthday Flowers

Here a couple of better shots of the beautiful flowers Bob got me for my birthday. They were incredible!

Engagement Photos

Here is a slideshow of our favorite photos from our engagement session. Our photographer, Jane Button, is amazing and we can't wait to have her take our wedding photos. You should check our her website, Jane Button Photography, as well.

Birthday Flowers

Look at the beautiful surprise I got this morning at school! My amazing, wonderful, incredible fiance got me these gorgeous flowers for my birthday and had them delivered to school. Isn't he the best??

I'll take a better picture of them when I get home from school - this was the best I could do with my laptop camera!

Last Day of School

No, we're not punchy and ready to be done with school at all...

And yes, we have tons of work to do instead of playing around with my computer camera...

Are we going to do that work? Nah, probably not... It's the last day of school!!

Take Five

Yes, we got to see Dave Brubeck play Take Five live, and with the Boston Pops. It was amazing!!!

Blue Rondo A La Turk

A video of Dave Brubeck and the Boston Pops doing Blue Rondo A la Turk

Top 10 Thursday

I used to be so good about doing a "Top 10 Thursday", but I've been slacking lately. However today I saw that a couple of my friends (Amanda and Cindy) had written Top 10 posts, so I decided that it was time for me to bring it back as well.

So, here it is, my list of 10 things that make me very happy right now:

1. Tomorrow is the last day of school! Kids were done today and teachers are finished tomorrow. Its been a long year and I'm ready to be finished.

2. My birthday is on Saturday! And it is the first birthday I get to spend with Bob, so I'm really excited.

3. We're going to spend a couple of days at Hedding to relax, starting on Saturday. We're really looking forward to it - it will be nice to get away and recover from school.

4. Watching "Say Yes To The Dress" - yes, I'm in wedding mode for sure. I've been DVRing the show and I love watching it. It is amazing to see the dresses and pretty shocking to see what people choose sometimes. And it makes me think about my dress and how excited I am to wear it.

5. The wedding is just over 100 days away!!

6. The Hershey bar my wonderful fiance brought out tonight when I was having a huge chocolate craving.

7. Knowing that I get to have my office at school all to myself next year. The horrible other music teacher is moving out of our shared office and I will get the space to myself. I can't wait!

8. Looking forward to my birthday dinner at Zampas with Bob, Marc & Erin on Saturday night.

9. Looking forward to the fun things planned for this summer - my bridal shower, the bachelorette party, time at Hedding, time at Georges Pond, Footnotes, and a trip to Michigan at the end of August.

10. My wonderful man who makes me happy every day. Life is good!

Dave Brubeck!!

Bob and I had the amazing opportunity to see Dave Brubeck perform with the Boston Pops last night. It was incredible!!! We are both huge Brubeck fans - Bob says that the songs from Take Five were his lullabies since his dad played the album so often during his childhood.



Dave Brubeck was one of the first things we connected about when we were getting to know each other and a couple of days before our first date we spent an afternoon in the library at school talking about Dave Brubeck and his albums. When I saw that he was playing with the Pops, I knew we had to go.



The concert was amazing and I'm so glad we were able to experience it together. It was incredible to hear and see Brubeck play - he is 90 years old this year. A true living legend!

I took some great video that I'll upload later...

We're on our way to being famous...

A friend of mine has started a blog where she posts stories about how people met their significant others. She contacted me and asked me to share our story, which I was happy to do. She's hoping to possibly have her blog evolve into a book in the future so it is fun to have the chance to be a part of it. Here is the link to our story on her blog: Heart to Heart

The other stories on the blog are great too, so please check them out.

Memorial Day Weekend

We've had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I didn't take nearly enough pictures to document the weekend (I was too busy enjoying it!), but here is one that I took last night at Hedding.

Our weekend started out with a low-key Friday night and Saturday at home, which is always much needed after a long week at school. Then Saturday night we went to Sarah and Reg's hosue for a cookout with them, Lisa, and Victoria. Reg fired up (literally - he uses a blow torch to start it) the bonfire and we had a wonderful evening of good friends, food, and conversation. We made s'mores, which always make me very happy, and Bob and Reg broke out their guitars and played as the night progressed. It was a perfect night!

Our original plan for the weekend had been to go to Hedding and we finally made it there on Sunday afternoon. I'll admit that I was a little concerned Bob might not like Hedding and find it as charming as I do, but lucky for me, he loved it! He was a happy man - a nice getaway, plus he got to have lobster last night. We're already counting down the days until we can go back to Hedding - its just so nice to get away and relax.

Now Bob is napping and I'm getting ready to go to school for the Memorial Day parade. Back to reality...

Engagement Photos

Our wedding photographer took engagement photos for us this past weekend and we had a really good time. Neither of us love getting our picture taken, so it was good for us to practice for the big day. Jane, our photographer, is great and we enjoyed working with her. We did the photos out at Hedding, which was a great backdrop.

Here is the link if you'd like to look at our favorite pictures from the shoot:

Engagement photos

Prom

We chaperoned the prom last night and actually had a really good time. It was fun to see the kids all dressed up and they were all pretty excited that we were chaperoning together. In fact, when it came time for the first dance of the night, to our surprise we heard the DJ announce our names. One of our students had told the DJ that we were getting married and had requested that we dance the first dance of the night. It was actually really sweet. The kids were cheering for us and taking our pictures while we were dancing to "At Last". The DJ had the kids join us halfway through the dance and when it was over, a bunch of kids congratulated us and asked to see my ring. It was very cute. We're glad the kids are so excited for us and it was sweet of them to recognize us like that at the prom.

Easter In Maine

We spent Easter weekend in Maine with my mom and had a great time! Bob and I have decided that Bar Harbor is one of our very favorite places and we're happy to go there any chance we can. We are actually going to spend our honeymoon there in October - we've booked a few nights at the Bar Harbor Inn and we are really excited. On the Saturday of Easter weekend Bob, Mom and I spent the afternoon in Bar Harbor - lunch at Geddy's (one of the only eateries open in the off-season), then a walk around the park and the pier. The weather was beautiful and we were all very happy to be there.

The other highlight of the weekend (for Bob anyway) was lobster. He and Mom had lobster on Saturday night and they were both in heaven. No lobster for this vegetarian, but I'm glad Bob enjoyed his. He is a big fan of lobster, so I think that is another reason why he loves Bar Harbor and the coast of Maine so much - lots of opportunity for fresh lobster!

We're Engaged!!

Bob proposed on Friday, March 26, 2010! It was beautiful and we are so happy!