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.