The Midge

If you folks didn't know this already, dad bought an MG Midget, a wicked tiny car. It's his winter project and it is wicked small. Here are a few pictures of him and my uncle brian in The Midge. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

YAY!!!!!

well thursday was my one month for being sober. i am really proud of myself and came to realize that being sober really does have alot of positives to it. nicole and i are back to being friends. i guess when i was drinking i was to nieve to realize thats why she wasnt speaking with me. so i think that is a great thing the other day we went to iparty and hung out trying on all the masks and costumes for about 45 mins to and hour. it was alot of fun and she even looked at me and said "see i have alot of fun with you when you are sober, well we had a few times where it was fun when you were drinking till it got outta hand but i am really proud of you and happy that we are hanging out again" when she told me that i was really happy and thinking about makes me realize how proud my family is and that i did do the right thing even though sometimes it feels like im doing it for nothing but im doing it because i truely am happier. i am also back to work thank god and i am even getting overtime. so that is very exciting as well.

well nicole is a proud mother of one month old kayden. she got her own apartment and is doing very well for herself. she is a good mother but as all mothers know there has been a couple hard times for her. me and her are back to speaking again after i told her i stoped drinking and everything so that is a great thing. here are a few pics of him. frenchy came down the other day and stepped up and wants to be a father he even gave her money for him. so that is another good thing.

this is baby kaden.

this is when mom was watching kayden. dad said he was like this most of the time lol.

this is me feeding kayden

Good Morning!

Well, Tanner was born just yesterday!! and he is adorable. 6 pounds 11 ounces, 19 inches long, 10 fingers and 10 toes. He's beautiful. We had to wait for ever before we could see her and then I finally got to go in when she was breast feeding him. Clyde and Sandy, the happy grandparents left shortly after, because they had been there since five in the morning. So I stayed with her for a while and then the nurses let Mike, Brook, Aalyah and baby Brice in to see her. We left so she could be alone, because they were going to bathe him and her and let her eat and sleep. I was there from ten to three but it was worth it. Aalyah was pretty excited she was there when her cousin was born. Well I'm going to go now, love to all

baby on the way!!

Don't worry, not mine. lol. I am at the hospital right now....mikes sister sky JUST had her baby I'm not kidding right when I wrote that it happened. She just had a boy named Tanner. THis is a big deal. Ok I got to go, everyones getting all frazzled and want to see him and oh its hectic. I love everyone I'll post more later!!

College visit

Well, yesterday mom me and dad all went to visit McIntosh College in Dover New Hampshire. It was a very fun trip (after we weren't lost anymore) and I learned alot. The college is a very small one, which is good because I dont see myself surviving a big college.
They are offering a fifteen month program for criminal justice and classes start on July 9th, 2008. I will be graduated from college September 19,2009 I believe. When you graduate they help you find a job in the field you came there to study. I think that it is pretty cool and I like it alot because its small and not alot of students and a lot of fun activities and the dorm security guy said that "downtown" is full of a bunch of fun things to do in my spare time. There's still some things to consider...but nothing I can't work out in eight months!

guns

this a overhead pic of me shooting the 25 mm cannon

this is the gun firing, i also am posting the videos of when we threw grenades.

Today I counted my pennies

Today I counted my pennies. I've been saving them for years and years but I'm cashing them in. No, I'm not broke. I'm excited though! I'm taking my earnings and buying a wedding dress. Well, actually, they probably won't even pay the sales tax on the wedding dress. It's a sentimental thing. For those of you who don't know, when I was a teenager, I saved my pennies. I can remember seeing the jar of them on my bureau on High Street in Hope Valley. I don't know why I kept them. We didn't have anything. By the time I moved to New Hampshire, I had decided that maybe someday I would get married and I would spend my pennies on a wedding dress.

I think I had $9.00 worth of pennies to put toward my dress 25 years ago. I don't remember now. But when Christie was born and I held her in my arms, I dreamt of a day that she would get married and have the wedding dress of her dreams. I've been saving pennies again for maybe 10 years.

This morning I got out my pennies. I've dreamt about Karen getting married too, so I kept some of those hard won coins for her. I can't post the photo I took but I have one big Mason jar and two smaller jelly jars full of pennies to cash in. I don't think the Bridal shop will take them in their current form.

A cute side story. A couple of years ago, Christie told the penny story at a party. Casey's friend Jamie Lyon heard it and then gave her a ziploc baggie of pennies. You all will probably see Jamie in a tuxedo on the wedding day. He and I will have paid for Christie's wedding dress. His portion? About $2.50!

I would just like to know why no one has posted in the past two days?

Boogie boarding extraordinaires!

I got the pictures from the waterproof camera today that Casey and I used while ridin' waves in Virginia Beach and Myrtle Beach and I thought I'd share some of our fabulous boogie boardin' skills. :)

Me in a little one. (Myrtle Beach)

Chillin' out in the water at VA Beach.I find my expression in this pic rather funny- I'm just waiting for that wave to smack me from behind, lol. (Myrtle Beach) This is an awesome pic of Casey catching a big wave! He feels pretty special about it. Haha. (Myrtle Beach)
You can tell how big this one was by the size of the splash it made behind him! (Myrtle Beach)

These waves aren't that great, but I like this pic anyways. :)

Spa & Slumber Party

For Ruth's 7th birthday, we took the plunge, and had a sleepover. Only 2 of the invited 6 spent the night, and 1 came just for the spa treatments. Boy, did I luck out! :)

We started the evening with some beading, and the new Disney princess movie. (I don't care for the new stories about the princesses. They feel like badly done television.) We got to eat real pizza, not frozen junk and then got our cool glow in the dark glasses and pj's on.

Let me tell you those things were a pain! They kept coming apart and so we didn't wear them long. Actually that worked out, because we had cucumber peel masks to wear while we did some foot soaks and scrubs. The girls were a little creeped out by the look of the scrub, but they loved the feel of their feet when we were done. :)

We then painted some t-shirts that said "I survived Ruth's slumber party" with fabric paint. I am glad I know enough to put cardboard on the inside of the shirt, because those shirts were loaded!

About this time, Ruth was exhausted. She popped in "Sound of Music" and went to sleep. The rest of us painted nails for an hour or so. (No drips down our legs, Jenn!) The girls that stayed were done with the video. "It's boring, can we watch something else" done. SO, I set up the TV so that they watched PBS all night, and crawled into bed.

Next morning, we had yummy pancake breakfast with bacon, scrambled eggs, and orange smiles. Hm mm, yummy. It makes me think that it's time to go and eat breakfast now!

Love to all!

2days fun!

today mom and i decided at a sper of the moment we would go out and do something fun today. mom had the ideas of going to pick apples, the movies, going to meet jenn and mike at home depot or going for a hike up cardigan mountain. now all sounded good but i thought about the hike and realized in my condition i probably would have died half way up it. i figured that probably wouldnt be the fun that we were looking for so instead we went to home depot and went to the movies. so after meeting mike and jenn we went to the movies and saw superbad. it was pretty funny. i had a good time with everyone (hope they had as much fun as i did!!!!)

yo yo

Hello all! Well...I'm sicker than a dog as well as my sister. Thankfully, I don't have a 102 degree tempature. It just started with my left nostril running like a faucet, and my left eye tearing all the time. Now I have a nasty cough (with brown phlem to be really descriptive) and my nose is running out of both nostries, it is crap!! Anyway, the college fair at HACTC was on thursday, and I filled out cards at almost every station to get information on college. Unfotrunatly, none of them offered Criminal Pyschology, but Macintosh college called me the day after and said they are offering a 15 month program for criminal justice and invited me for a visit!! I'm pretty excited to go and check it out with mom and dad. I will probably be doing that this week or next. It is in Dover New Hampshire. I also want to see Michaels, which is a hair school. They have Paul Mitchells son come and do classes there all the time, and a lot of famous hair dressers and what not. And every year the school goes to LAS VEGAS to do some sweet hair competition which is a pretty big deal. It was alot of fun checking all this stuff out...
So Mike decided this morning he was done smoking, and I laughed in his face (Supportive, I know) but when we stopped to get me cigarettes, he didn't get any!! and he didn't even have any! I couldn't even believe it! I hope that he really does quit, and as for me, it's been crossing my mind lately, not enough to actually make the choice just yet though.
I cut and colored sams hair yesterday, even layered it!! Let me just say, I did a hell of a lot better on her than that day with aunt kathys (no offense aunt cindy, it was pretty bad, but I think we will make a good team some day!) The dye job didn't come out as she wanted, which was strange, but I told her she needs to wait at least three weeks to color again unless she wants it falling out like mine did when I dyed it three times in one week. Oh, and I got a sweet bumper sticker from Scotland by the Yard and it says "Scots make better lovers" haha I thought it was sweet.
And that's pretty much what's been going on lately, so see ya! Love Everyone!

Maryland Renaissance Festival.

Karen and I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival today to see her friend Maddy perform as an Aerial Angel. I've always kinda wanted to go to a festival like this and it was great to finally be able to- thank goodness for a sister who likes going events like this! There was a lot to see and we didn't get to it all, but we did see some good performances and had some yummy food. We saw the sword swallower, a show called Fight School II where a group of guys perform various fighting scenes using various weapons (swords, cutlasses, etc), jousting, and of course Maddy's performance. And, we saw lots of bosoms hanging out of corseted tops, so that's great. Haha. Below are some pictures from our day.

This is Maddy during her aerial performance.

This is when they used the whip to rip a piece of paper in half. That piece started out as a full sheet of newspaper!

Johnny Fox the sword swallower swallowing a sword.

In awe over the sword swallowing.

One of the jousting performance events- basically they were bonking each other on the head for points.

Karen cheering at the jousting while waving her turkey leg.

im sorry

i have decided that now is probably the time to talk about everything that has been going on. i was arrested again a couple of weeks ago. it was for consumption of alcohol by a minor. since i have been arrested i dont hang out with anyone and i have been staying home except when i go to burlington. see the thing is that i know i let everyone down including myself and it has been bothering me alot since the arrest. i was doing so good then i screwed up again. i had been letting drugs and alcohol run my life for a long time now and i never really wanted to face that that was really happening and i finally wanted to do something about it. honestly the drugs havent been what i was looking at i havent really smoked pot since i got out of jail because my intrest in it wasnt as strong as it was i only smoked pot every once in a great while but the alcohol is the one thing that i wanted. i drank consistantly for the last 4 months. when i was arrested i realized how bad my alcoholism was getting. im 19 and basically live for alcohol. it was getting really bad. the night i was arrested i drank basically a 5th of vodka in 15 mins. i realized if i dont put it aside i could lose everything. it hurts to think that i might lose my job and go back to jail because of my problems. i have been going to rb's meetings with jenn now for 3 weeks and it has been helpful. i have been clean now for 3 weeks yesterday and im proud to say that i am happier without the alcohol. there was a time where i felt i wasnt happy unless i had the alcohol in me. i also talked to my supavisor at work and my lead and they said even if i go to jail my job would probably not be a stake because im a good worker and im there everyday and they dont have any problems with my work. that made me feel alittle better knowing that i probably wont lose my job. it is still killing me knowing i lost the trust of people i love and care about. when i go to burlington alot of people think that thats where i do my drugs and drink but i went up there the other weekend and weed was brought out and i looked at my friends and told them i felt uncomfortable and we left. my friends there know what happened and they have been supportave of it and they want to help me which also makes me feel good. at the bonfire a kid asked if i wanted to go smoke a blunt and i just looked at him and looked back to my cousin nicole and looked at him and told him i dont want to and walked away and went over to nicole and hung out with her. it made me feel so good when i told them no i dont want to it made me feel like i can be myself and not get f*cked up to do so. i was also asked if i could help someone find someone to find them alcohol and i looked at her and told her im not going to drink help anyone drink but if u want to hang out or talk about something else than i would do that. she just gave me a look like i was crazy and walked away. that hurt that she did that but it also made me feel good about myself. i just wanted to tell everyone im so sorry that i messed up again and that im working on getting clean and that im sorry for letting everyone down. also i took my last GED test last night so i will let everyone know how that went when i get the results. again im so sorry. thank u everyone for being there for me in the past and im glad i have a family who cares. i love u guys!!!

Still sick!!

hello everyone.
i just got back from the doctors office and i dont have mono so i had to go and get my blood drawn again because he thinks that i may have something wrong with my gall bladder but idk hopefully we can figure it out cuz i miss everyone at work and they miss me. this week i went into work on wendsday and thursday and on wendsday a lady named lori gave me a present which i will share a pic of it later tonight. it really made me realize that people other than my family really do care about me and it made me feel really good!! i have been suffering watching tv for the last 2 days cuz theres nothing else i can do and i have been going to bed aroung 7 or 8 so i hope i can get better so i can do more things. even though friday i went to jenns bonfire cuz there was nothing that will have me miss her senior year and saturday i went shopping and to the tunbridge fair witch i must say didnt help me at all but it was alot of fun!!!

College

i just thought you all would like to know that i have just recently started college. yes that is right, another one gets into it. i have enrolled in a gunsmithing course and when i finish i am thinking about small business management and financing, eventually opening my own gun shop. figured you all would like to know.

Drafts.

Hey everyone. This is Christie as the blog administrator. I just wanted to let you know that I have published a post Sam created awhile back but never published. I assume that she didn't realize that it didn't publish and that is why I did it for her. Aunt Cindy, you also have a post that has not been published- if you would like it published, go ahead and publish it, or we can just delete it. Please note that posts that were created previously, but that are published now, will show up as the date they were originally created. If you have any questions, please let me know! This is really an awesome thing we've got going here! :)

MEXICANS ON THE ROOF

I thought you all might be interested to know that at 7:30 this morning about 20 mexicans arrived at our house with a huge truck and climbed up on our roof and began making as much noise as they possible could. It is now about 8:11 am and they are still there like a stampede of wildebeest. You can imagine my surprise when I woke up and heard this right above me. I can't repeat the phrase that entered my mind but suffice it to say, I was a little peeved. Still am. You can't imagine just how loud it is. Scraping and pounding. NON-STOP. And there are two white guys on the ground "supervising." Oh, and we had NO IDEA that this was going to happen. No heads-up, no call, nothing. Michele woke up and saw a bunch of men climbing out of a van with tools and crap at 7:30 in the morning and needless to say she was a little freaked out. Kinda like when mom thought we were being invaded by the russians....but that's a different story. In any case, I just thought I would share this lovely experience with all of you. Maybe I'll get a picture and post that. If I could get audio, that would be ideal. Well, enjoy your day.

Pretty in Pink

So I was doing some manican work...highlighting one spot pink (the same dye I used to do mine pink) and I thought it would be cool to do Britneys mohawk pink...so there she is. She didn't like getting her hair dyed as you can see... i guess she just doesn't like the glamour life...but I think it's cute. Hopefully mom doesn't read this before she gets home...Dad might be mad... I've dyed it brown before...it kind of looked like a poop smear. But the pink is awesome. So I call her "pretty in pink" and she comes when I say it. haha. Oh, and Sam is in the process right now of getting a pink highlight in her bangs...her idea I swear!! Those are my pink hands...I didn't have any gloves, but thankfully it washes out. And don't worry all you animal cruelty people... The dye will come out it's not permanent. ENJOY!!

One receptionist job at a hair salon declined...
Couple more to go...
I hope that I can get a job in a salon.

Circus Freak

So, I know I already posted pictures from the circus, but this a picture someone else took that I found and I think you will all enjoy it immensely. At the end of every summer, the costumer goes through the old costumes and has sort of a yard sale where people can look through them and take whatever they want. Needless to say, it's a bit of a free-for-all and people end up walking around in crazy outfits. Well, this year, Paige and I found this amazing unitards which were used during Sci-fi year and wore them around for a while. We even trekked through the woods to sneak up on the other concessionaires. It was ridiculous. So anyway, here I am.

Sweet Emotion

This is like 5 minutes long, but you don't have to watch the whole thing. I just wanted to share a part of the concert with you... besides pictures and stories. I'm glad it uploaded! :)

Sleeping Beauty

So, Ruth is having a slumber party on Friday to celebrate her 7th birthday, and she convinced me to but her new pjs/ nightgown. The set came with the sleeping blindfold thing, and she begged to go to bed early!

Hey, whatever works. :)

Anyway, she was so cute, I had DJ take a picture, and here she is:

Dead Towel???

We don't know what it is. DJ found this on the web sometime last year. There was no name given, but it was sort of beast that was found in Maine. Actually FOX news covered the story. It was interesting, this is the site: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,208683,00.html.

and I have rambled...

The picture keeps grossing me out, so I took it off. I just needed to share the image. If this is not something you already witnessed, I am sorry. (not really, :) but you can Google Maine beast)

So, you are wondering

"WHY have you posted this nasty thing on the blog?".

The answer is,

"Every time I scroll through Jenn's pictures of Beth and the towel, I think of this photo."

Doesn't it have some resemblance?

They are both yucky and things I wouldn't want to touch with a ten foot pole!

AEROSMITH!!!!

Hey all, just thought I'd get on here and share about the Aerosmith concert, which Casey and I attended last night. It was AWESOME! Steven Tyler is like a madman running around stage and Joe Perry has crazy guitar skills- first time I've ever actually seen someone play the guitar up behind their head! I'm so glad I finally got to see them in concert. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts opened for them, but we only saw half of their performance because we were waiting in line for food. Aw well, Aerosmith is who we went to see anyways... and we saw her perform "I Love Rock andRoll," and that's what matters, haha. These are some pictures we took.The top one is when they first came out- Steven Tyler is towards the right by where the stage extends into the crowd. The one below is when they all (except Brad) were gathered to perform by Joey on the drums. The very bottom one is of Joe Perry and Steven Tyler performing at the end of the stage extension. Sorry they aren't that great, but our camera kind of stinks. I tried to upload a video into this post, but I think it is too big. I'll try it in it's own post, but if that doesn't work, you all will have to watch it when I'm around with my computer sometime- it's of them playing Sweet Emotion. Hope everyone is doing well (Sam and Jenn- feel better soon!). I can't wait to be home to visit!

Not feelin so good....

Well, Sam has not been feeling well since last Wednesday. She has been running a fever of 100 - 103 pretty steady so we finally broke down and went to the doctors today. She may have mono so they sent her to the clinic to have blood drawn. We won't find out for sure for a few days. They wrote her a note to stay home from work until Wednesday morning so she is at home watching all the "Americas Top Model" shows that she has taped for the past 3 months. If it's not mono I'm not sure what they will do. I will keep everyone updated. I also had to make an appt for Jenn because she has a sore throat with white things on the back, although the school nurse says it is NOT strep because she does not have a temp. We will have her checked out tomorrow.
That's all my news....

Senior Bonfire

These are pictures from my senior bonfire that was friday night!! The first one from left to right is amanda, kristin, me, staci and courtney chillin out the day we made it. The second one is with my big friend Adam and the third one is my board with my name on it and our scottish saying which means "Courage grows strong at a wound" The next one is me and courtney and staci holding our candles that everyone throws in to start the fire, but we decided to keep ours instead. And the one to the left is kristin with her sweet red sunglasses holding her board that has her last name on it. I have those red sunglasses also, but I had to wear my pink ones because they are a bit cooler. So unfortunatly, I lost my job at georges because kristin called and said I was going to my bonfire instead of working, which I know, wasn't handled the right way. and I dont need anymore lectures I got enough from my mother. =). But I went job hunting that day before the fire and ended up getting an interview that night at the cave, which is a bar slash restaraunt but I decided not to go to it because I want to stay away from the drunked losers that hit on anything with boobs for a while. and I want to see if I can get a receptionist job somewhere at a hair salon, you know, for the experience and stuff. Well thats all for now, mike and I must go eat dinner before he dies of starvation the poor woofer, so Love everyone!

Hello Loves!

Okay, so, I said I would write more about the vacation Casey and I just got back from, and finally, here it is! Monday during the day we visited some arcades and wasted some money, haha. And I kicked this arm wrestling games butt... okay, not really- but only because it was such an old game that it was out of commission. We also went to the pier, which was lovely- the beach seems to go on forever in each direction when you are out there! After that we played in the water and rode some waves! Yeah dudes! Haha. Monday night we played shuffleboard and I kicked Casey's butt! It's probably because I'm such an old bitty and he's such a young lad... at least he keeps telling me I'm like an old lady because I go to bed so early. Haha, whatever- I kicked his butt, so who cares?! :) Tuesday we played in the water some more and I built a sandcastle. Oh, and we ate at River City Cafe that night- which was DELICIOUS! They have the most yummy onion rings- not to mention the largest I've ever seen. The burgers were great too and it was fun reading all the stuff people have written on the walls over the years. We added our own little bit of course! :) Wednesday we wandered around Broadway at the Beach and then played mini-golf at Captain Hook's. Casey beat me... as usual. Whatever, I beat him by more when played shuffleboard! Unfortunately, Thursday rolled around and we were in our last day at the beach- so, I made Casey get up to watch the sunrise. It was at like 7, so he couldn't complain too much! The rest of the day we just lounged and played on the beach- and Casey let me bury him in the sand! The video is kinda funny, but also creepy when he is pumping his stomach because it's like a scary sand creature movie and the sand creature is coming to life. Or not. Haha.

After coming back to VA for the night, we went to Jersey on Saturday for a car drifting competition. If you don't know what that is, it's pretty much cars going fast and sideways-like around a track and making lots of smoke with their tires. And Casey got his picture taken with Funkmaster Flex who is a famous TV show car guy. Then on Sunday we came home and on Monday we went back to work. Poo. At least my work changes soon- October 9 to be exact! And I'll be home in VT the whole first week of October so I hope to see some peoples! Sorry this is a novel, but I'm done... for now. ;) Love and miss everyone lots!

Oh, and I bought this house at the beach, so if you want to stay sometime, let me know.

Haha, yeah right... I wish! :)

Is it a scam?

Is this for real, or do I ignore it?

I got home today and in my email was an invitational letter from Alpha Beta Kappa, forwarded by Kaplan's student life coordinator. I was invited to join the Delta Zeta Chapter of Florida. But, in order to join I have to pay about 40 bucks. I am not sure if this means that if I pay I am in automatically, or if it is the start of an expensive process.
I am open to opinions. :)

Oh the Joys of being a real estate agent!

So I was sitting here typing my english paper up when mom comes home and asks me to help her do somethings at the house she just sold. She said there was a towel lying on the lawn thats been there for a really long time and she was scared to pick it up herself because of herds of slugs and maybe a snake so I had to go. Well I thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring the camera and show you all what it takes to be a real real estate agent....which includes being able to unlock doors, which mom, struggled with unlocking the door to this house, which you will be able to preview also. Enjoy!!

Creative juices

Okay, so it is Tuesday night and I am half way through my project which is due in three hours. I get a little mental block, and here I am. :) I will hand in the essay, which is about maintaining healthy populations of grizzly bears and wolves by creating human free zones with in national parks. I personally don't think it will work, because both species need very large hunting territories. Blah Blah blah. :) I won't bore you with the details.
Love you all! Back to school I go!

Rain Rain Go away!!!

oh...I just got home from school and the doctors office! It is raining outside and kind of a gloomy day so to speak. I went to the doctors today and got a new birth control so hopefully I wont have my period for months on end!! I also had to be lectured on my eating habits, because I'm twelve pounds underweight. But, she said, I am not anorexic, and not even close!! Then I had to go up to the hospital to get my blood drawn to test and see if I really am anemic, the doc said this might be a motivator to fatten me up a bit! So that was all said and done today, I did it all by myself with out my mommy!!! =( She asked if I wanted her to come, and I said I could handle it, even though my trips to the doctors with mom were always a good time. HA! and the funny thing is, my doctor filled out a slip for me to take up to the hospital with me when I went to get blood drawn, and it was raining so the paper got a bit wet. So while I was sitting in the waiting room waiting for my turn at needle point, I went to fold the paper in half, and accidently ripped it in half!! Oh man, I laughed out loud to myself, people walking by thought I was crazy and in the wrong ward of the hospital, but me and the blood lady had a good laugh together when I went in.

That is me in my sweet outfit I wore yesterday, for the rain and all. Mike kept saying he was embaressed to be seen with me because I looked like something horrific comming out of Candy Land, but before I left last night he said that he really did like my outfit!! That sweater is awesome, THRIFT STORE BABY!! LIKE TWO BUCKS!! ya ya

Ridin in the Rain!

YUP, Jim and I left early Sunday morning to go on a benefit bike ride for Davis Hemmingway Memorial Fund. He is a young man who drowned a few years ago and the benefit is a fundraiser his parents put on for a scholarship in his name.
Anyway it was raining when we left and raining when we got home! The scariest part was when we got to Newport and the water was running over my running boards/boots and my visibilty was about 20%. Luckily we were really close to the sign in place and by the time we left for the ride it was raining off and on, but not a down pour like when we arrived. The unfortunate part was there wasn't nearly the amount of bikes that participated in the past few years, but it wasn't a total loss. Anyway, despite being wet and cold, it was alot of fun!

And I thought the Grackles were bad.....

Yesterday morning I noticed out the kitchen window that the rod that holds up the birdfeeder on the porch was bent down and the feeder was not hanging. I thought those darned blue jays finally knocked it down.

I went outside as I was leaving for work and took a closer look. The bird feeder was GONE. So I looked around the yard and noticed that the long bird feeder on the hook at the edge of the yard wasn't hanging either. As I crossed the yard, I saw the top of my good bird feeder from the porch in the middle of the yard (it shouldn’t come off at all). And the cheap birdfeeder was gone too. I took a step closer and looked into the edge of the woods. The cheap birdfeeder was empty and broken to pieces. (Yes, I was beginning to think I was looking at a crime scene!!)

The house style feeder on the hook was also broken at the bottom and the seed had come out onto the ground. I turned around and went back to the porch…..you could see these long muddy marks on the porch post…….my flowers were knocked over……..and I realized that this was NOT the behavior of a raccoon…….

It was the behavior of a BEAR!!!!!!!! This was confirmed when I arrived at work and described the scene to Shane (a co-worker). He also said that bears are not nocturnal animals. Chances are it happened in daylight…possibly this morning!

I’m bummed that my good bird feeder may be destroyed (I didn’t go into the woods to find out!!) but I do wish I had seen the bear!

(above is the story as I told it to Christie in an e-mail yesterday. When I got home last night I shared my story with Mike. He went and picked up the broken birdfeeder and searched around for the "good feeder". When he found it, you could tell that the bear had quite a time trying to get into it! Yet, it was worth the money Mike paid for it. I cleaned it up because it can still be used! After the bear goes into hibernation, of course!)

And I thought the grackles were bad.............

Here I am Again!

YAY! I have internet at my house now, so I will be online more often and thus be more inclined to post more often. I am very excited. Nothing very exciting is happening at school or anything, but I said before that I would post some pictures from the summer, so I will do that now. It wasn't the best summer with the circus because of problems with my boss and other people I worked with, but it wasn't a total loss. Here are a few highlights.

This is me on my birthday in Essex. If it is your birthday and the clowns know about it, you will get a pie in the face. It is usually done by Josh, who was head counselor. I wore my glasses on purpose because they use shaving cream which kind of burns and wouldn't feel good on contacts.









This is a blurry picture of the ferry dock on Martha's Vineyard. This beach was right across the street from our site. Needless to say, I spent quite a bit of time there. It was soooo hot so it was nice to have the water so nearby.










One morning, Paige and I decided to get up at the crack of dawn and watch the sun rise and bike around the island. This is where we ended up, just a tiny harbor somewhere in Edgartown. It was a lot of fun. Below is me on my bike.

This is Paige and I at the Pirate's Cove Golf course in North Conway, NH. We both lost pretty bad but we got these cool hats at the end. :)And finally, at North Conway our site was at a Ski resort and one morning I needed to blow off some steam so I climed to the top of the ski slope. It was exhausting but worth it when I got to the top. This is only one part of an amazing view I had from a large boulder I rested on at the top of the mountain.

So anyway, this is a long post, but I wanted to share some of my summer with you all because even though it didn't go that well this summer, it is still very important to me, so I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my adventures. I will post again soon hopefully with other fun and interesting things! LOVE LOVE!