Have you ever opened up a gift and went....."what the heck?" I have. I've gotten some doozies over the years. Gift cards seem to be the latest rage lately. I'm thinking it's a good idea. Find a shop or quaint little restaurant that one on your gift list likes to frequent and surprise him/her with a card for a future visit. You can even wrap a small token gift appropriate for the card along with it. For instance, if you know someone who just loves Starbucks or Dunkin Donu...

Tomorrow will be four weeks in our new home. We are loving the weather but missing our friends. We are starting to make new friends and I find myself seeing old friends and aquaintences in these new faces. I say to my husband, "Doesn't so and so remind you of ______ back home?" Sometimes he sees it too. It's funny how certain people remind you of others. Today I was talking to a lady named Peggy Sue and all I could think of was that she reminded me of my sons' teacher in elementary...

An interesting thing happened today. Very interesting. In fact, to us it was quite unbelievable. Well, not really, because we know who's behind all this. God is funny how he arranges things. We were definitely "set up." We were going to attend our friend's church for our first Sunday here, but a miscommunication arose. That, and the fact I'm slow moving in the morning made for a change in our plans. Since we were not going to make our friend's church in time, we decided to check...

Ok, so I didn't actually drive it, but I helped where I could, and I totally owned a few anxious moments especially on our first day. A few times I had to jump out and do some directing making sure he didn't hit anything he wasn't supposed to. We finally landed in Florida on Monday afternoon after driving for three days. It turned out to be a 31 hour trip from Maine to Florida. It was a pretty scary first leg. We've never driven a truck like this before. We had a 24 foot truck with ...

I was in a hurry today. Ha! That's not all that unusual. I'm always buzzing about town. In and out of the car faster than a speeding bullet half the time. Today I went into town to do a bunch of errands, meet with the gals for the last time, hug their necks and take one out to lunch. Then off to the laundromat to get that big quilt washed, off to get my corn chowder ingredients (for Saturday) then then to the Post Office and x-country practice and with picking up boxes at the local ...

We had a short opportunity to host a Chinese family this past weekend. Well we didn't exactly know we would get a whole family when we offered to help but that's who came. Gaofeng, Jingjing and Luke (Xiyu). An email went out earlier in the week requesting homes for about a dozen or so Chinese visiting from Boston. So since we had two vacant bedrooms I said I could take at least two. I didn't even hesitate which is kind of funny with the packing and yard sale stuff going on but r...

It finally happened! I had words with one of our runners and it wasn't pretty. I was told to "chill" by a 15 year old girl. I wasn't pleased. Not by a long shot. In fact, I was steaming mad to say the least. Chill? Not happening! Nope. Too steaming mad for that to take place. We have a master manipulator on our team. She's one of our top three runners and one with attitude. It was bound to come to a head given the circumstances the last few weeks. We had a meet yes...

Today was an interesting day. Up at 4 am to catch a 5 am bus for a HS x-country meet. We had a long drive to Manchester, NH for a huge event we do every year. Many races in the day of which we participated in four total. It was a very nice day for these races, overcast and cool. Actually we had quite a bit of fog that carried us through at least 11 am. When the sun finally broke free, the temps rose as expected. But all in all a nice day to be outside. I ran up the same start, a...

I'm heading out again. Tomorrow we leave for VA and then onto FL. We are going to help drive David and gear down for his last year of college. We'll hang around a bit with him. I'd like to run on the new indoor track again. We'll probably hit our favorite running place, Blackwater Trail in Lynchburg. We plan on meeting friends down there and going to Falwell's church which is always a highlight for us. Then on Monday of next week, we'll fly to Orlando, pick up a rental and...

I'm now on day five after my oral surgery and still having pain especially just before the next dose of medicine is due. It's not so much pain as it's discomfort. It's starting to wear me down tho. I'm still on double advil and penicillin every six hours around the clock. I'm off the pain killers only taking two the first day and off another drug he had me on for anti inflammatory. So overall I'm doing much better than he thought. My cheek and right under the jaw are very sensitive...

What a great day today was. It was almost perfect weather wise, a bit cool but very sunny and breezy. I finally got to hang out some laundry after days of rainy weather. The grass is really high after all this rain and needs a mowing badly. David promised he'd do it tomorrow. After planting flowers in my barrels and flower beds I went for a run down to the track. There I met David who left ahead of me. He took the car so I could drive back with him. He wanted to run about 12 miles ...

My husband just returned from Poland. While over there he really could see major differences in the way of life between there and home. He saw the poverty, the crazy drivers and nothing in English. Very few are able to speak English and translators were needed for my husband as he went over to speak at quite a few places. They loved hearing his language and kept insisting he speak to say something during his quiet times. They are a people with no luxuries. He even brought them toilet p...

I have a confession to make. I do not own a cell phone. Well unless you count the Trac Phone I just bought for my trip and that I'm going to return because I didn't like it. My husband doesn't have one either. He doesn't like the "we have to be on demand for anyone who wants us" sort of thing. We have an old fashioned phone with a message machine on it at home, so it's not like we're not connected or anything. We're just not connected 24/7 and I rather like it that way. How did ...

Hi guys, Welcome to my blog. Are you behaving yourselves? Ha! Why ask you? I wouldn't believe you anyway. Isn't that how it goes? Don't believe anything that anyone of you guys say in that house.......well maybe with the exception of Nate.......LOL. So since Christian is the instigator and the OLD guy, I'll start with you. I hope you're doing lots of studying this week Christian. Good luck in your very last finals!! Well, ummmm that is if you pass. Ha, I really think y...

I just spent five days hanging out with my son and his girlfriend in Lynchburg, VA and had a blast. The plane trip went according to textbook or actually better than expected. I'm now singing the Jet Blue Praises. I would definitely fly that airline again. My last flight home was 40 minutes earlier than expected. My husband was able to track my entire flight and picked me up exactly on time by doing so. I was very pleased. It all started a month or so ago when I told David if I could...