wedding in bethel

Congratulations to Sarah and Ned ANDRE! Saturday, October 29th me and my lovely date Anne Marie George drove to Bethel to attend the wedding of my friends Sarah and Ned.
It was quite strange to be anywhere without one Joseph or the other but Annie is really a great date. I recommend her to anyone. She has good car music, mingles well with people she does not know, and takes a lot of pictures (all of the pictures here are courtesy of Ms. George.

Saturday was a very beautiful day. The previous forecasts had predicted rain and snow but the sky ended up being clear and blue... a little chilly, but a beautiful day. We did manage to get a little lost on the way. I have no idea how we ended up at the right place. We just sort of did.

If anyone has not been to western Maine in the fall... very beautiful. Bethel is no exception. The wedding was at the Moses Mason House. If I remember correctly, Mr. Mason was a state representative like 150 years ago or so. Anyhow, his home was a nice, cozy place for a wedding.

The bride and groom were not very nervous before the wedding. I have a good shot of Ned here walking up through the leaves in his very fancy wedding suit. I heard he was seen a little bit later on the street sipping a PBR. Good ol' not so inhabited Maine.

We did have a little drama in the bride's camp. Sarah wore her mother's dress. It had been in storage for about 30 years. This means the zipper had really only ever been zipped a few times. Sarah got into her dress about half an hour before the ceremony started and the zipper would not budge!! The teeth were old and just not cooperating! Luckily Sherrie and Susanah (sorry if I spelled that incorrectly!) were able to force it along. Eek!!!

The ceremony went smoothly, the reception was lovely, the food was excellent and sadly Annie and I had to get going a little early to make it back to our respective homes at reasonable hours.

I guess Sarah and Ned are off to Nova Scotia for their honeymood. I just realized that Ned looks really evil in the photo I just posted. Again, thanks to Annie for all of these pictures.

As for other news to report: we have the use of our car back!!! Yay!!! Thank you so much Michelle for letting us use yours when we needed it. I have been thinking its about time for a Pook Appreciation Day. She has been invaluable lately as a free emergency babysitter. We owe her!

Recently Joseph (III) has decided that she is his favorite person. It is scary to think that maybe he enjoys her company even more than that of Joe or I. Unfortunately for Pook, this love hurts a little. He digs his little hands into any part of her he can get at and holds on for dear life. He also likes to go over the parts of her face with his fingernails.

Today is the baby's first Halloween. I will have pictures of that up very soon. I hope I heard correctly... Shoestring Theatre is having a puppet parade here in the west end? We are headed for that. Otherwise Joe and Joe and I plan to roam around costumed in the early evening so Joseph III can get a little of the Halloween spirit. No candy, of course. I just shuddered when I considered the prospect of my 'spirited' eleven month old ingesting concentrated sugar!!!!

Stay tuned for Halloween photos.

free bikes and stuff

The bill for the car keeps going up and up. We are afraid to answer the phone! It has gone from being the filters to the cat. converter to the coil... we have had to replace all of these parts and are looking at close to a thousand dollars and OUCH. We can't we have better mass transportation here? I am sure other people need it from time to time as well?

Speaking of transportation: On our walk back from the park yesterday we came by a bike in very good condition with a note begging someone to take it. We were just discussing how a bike might be helpful these days. Joseph's bike is somewhere else and every last bike I have owned has been stolen. So now we have a bike (picture of Joe and Joe taking posession of the bike. The baby was very interested in the bike phenomenon).

Joseph is turning one in a month. I was looking through pictures and found this one of myself on my first birthday. Very funny.... not only physical resemblance but the same naughty little look on my face. Nice 70s blouse:)

park

The baby and I found a new park yesterday. We have been in need of a new place to hang out since school started (we used to hang every day at the school a block away). I was very happy to learn that the new playground is equiped with FOUR baby swings!

We were also very appreciative of the maple trees growing in the center of the park. We spent about half an hour sitting on a bench watching the leaves fall. Joseph was sort of awestruck just 'aww'ing and pointing. I just love fall.

I am so glad it is a sunny day again. We have to make the most of it before the rain starts up. I used to love rainy days. A baby really changes things.

weekend

Happy Monday. The baby and I are listening to Tosca. He is all over the living room chasing shadows of trees blowing in the wind and I am unloading my camera. Already a nice day. Joseph is now coming down with the cold I had last week. I thought he had already sort of gone through that. I guess not. Pook is ill as well. I wonder if Joe II will get it? Let's hope not. I think we have enough to worry about this week:/.

I think we can get our car back Friday?

So- What went on this weekend? It was rainy, cloudy, and cold. These are things I don't usually object to. I worked both Saturday and Sunday... fine fine. (the above picture is of a tree full of little birds i encountered on my walk to work, the picture on the right is the view from the counter at work)

Saturday night was Sarah's (the happy couple pictured) bachelorette party. I didn't intend to become intoxicated... I did not intend to get ill... uhm....

Let's just say I definately feel like I am turning 30 next week.

I spent the bulk of yesterday more than hungover. I honestly cannot remember the last time I felt quite like that.

Some good came of the hangover. I couldn't bounce around like usual so to pass the time I started making the baby a quilt.







.
...... I thought it would be a good idea to hand sew the entire thing. Something to do when I am watching television at night (which has been making me feel oh so guilty). Mostly I just like sewing.

I feel much better today. I am waiting for my neighbor to finish with the laundry so I can get cracking on the things I need to do.

In one week I will be 30!! EEEEEEK

:)

rain, etc

rain and sleeplessness and a broken car-
here is joseph when it was not raining:)

what day is it today?

I just got a call from Joseph's pediatrician letting me know that his brain scan was normal. His brainscan was about a month ago. It is a good thing that the technician who did the scan told me that no news was good news in most cases. It is a good thing I was skeptical about the need for the test in the first thing. It is a good thing that both of his grandmothers told me that their children all had size-able heads.

Joseph is getting bigger and far more... uhm... grown up? I think we can officially call it: his first word was 'gourd' (he didn't really manage the end 'd', so it was something like 'gour'). Gourds have been popular at our place recently. It started when I let him pick some out at the grocery store...once, twice, three times. I also let him have a long look with his hands at the farmers market. We have spent a lot of time handing them around over here as well as drawing stupid faces on them. A few piles have gathered here and there and well, who knew that would be important to him?



Fall is going well so far. He finally gets to wear pajamas again. He is not putting up nearly as much of a fuss over wearing hats as I thought. I even managed to keep shoes and socks on him
for the duration of yesterday's walk. Good boy, Joseph!

this is the view out my living room window for the first 18 years of my life













this is the view a little over a year ago















this is the view right now



(in case i was not clear, these are different windows)

(same owl)