My Newish Obsession

I cannot stop watching Clatterford or Jam and Jerusalem as it's known in England. I am easily hooked on any British show especially ones starring Dawn French(The Vicar of Dibley) and Jennifer Saunders(Absolutely Fabulous). The third and final season came out on DVD last week so I am just watching them over and over like a crazy person. A couple weekends ago, I spent a very relaxing few hours sitting at my new dining room table and watching it on the laptop while working on a new project. I keep telling myself that I'm going to make sure I do that again but my life and the new Fall TV season keeps getting in my way. Now, I have come to a decision. I need to move to North Tawton, England if I am ever to be truly happy.

A Picture Tour Of Rangeley

The kids and I (minus Daddy and the puppy) went to Rangeley this past weekend. My mother had hand surgery a few weeks ago and needed some help around the house. I am still tired from doing this so I am going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

There is a scenic overlook as you come into town where you can stop and take touristy pictures. I stop every time. Only Declan still cooperates with me.
Until there is a leg injury from the rocks and then he's out.
Same scene minus Declan who is now back complaining in the car. The leaves are changing.
Camp. Actually, it's much more of a house now by Maine camp standards. I still call it camp. The idea of my parents selling it and never being able to be there again leaves me sort of shaky and breathless.
See, it's our house/camp. We built it and nobody else can live there. I didn't really have anything to do with the building since it was before I was born but you get the idea.
Every kid who has ever been in this camp/house since the 1960's has played with these poker chips. No idea where they came from since no one plays poker but they provide hours of fun.
Woke up Sunday morning to a gray day but you can still see the foliage on Bald Mountain. And a duck.
The elusive 10 year old girl has been spotted. She didn't know I took her picture.
All the rocks on the shore spent decades working their way up out of the lake. Declan threw them all back in.
We had to leave super early to get back for Declan's soccer game. Saying goodbye to Mom and Dad. My mother says to ignore her robe-she's dressed underneath it.
Couldn't leave town without taking a few more pictures. Grace groaned as I drove towards the church for "the annual picture". Too bad Grace. This is where your parents got married and I will always drag you here.
This is my favorite library ever and I have been to many. It's not this small anymore. There is a big addition in the back. I ignore that part even though it's where the bulk of the books are now. Can you tell I have problems with change? Don't even get me started on the "Bistro" that just opened in the old hardware store.

The Boy Scouts Are Back

Boy Scouts started up again this week. For both the boys in this house.

Declan got his old shirt and his new kerchief out. He is a Wolf or something this year? I really should know this but sometimes, details escape me. In fact, he might still be a Cub Scout? Regardless, Scouts started again this week.
He was excited and would only take silly pictures.
Here is the boy and his Dad, the pack leader, ready to head out and humoring me and my camera. They are both eager to get out the door so they can learn to set fires and wrestle bears or something like that. They are cute together though.

Table Space

Our tiny little dining room just got a whole lot more useful. We got my parents old table and it's like a whole new world for us. I know...who cares about a table? I didn't think we would but we do. The room is really too small to fit a whole dining room set in and we have just been using a small breakfast table for years. We always meant to get a bigger table but you know how it goes. Lets just say, Thanksgiving dinner was always very crowded with the four of us.

I actually have a hard time buying furniture because I was so used to just taking things I liked out of my Dads antique shop. I always got the 100% daughter discount. This is a maple table my parents have had up in Rangeley for years. My father refinished it at his shop and I have always liked it. Both sides drop down so we put it up against the window and the whole room opened up.
These are the cute swingy out things that flip out and hold the sides up. There are even two table leaves that we can add and then have a real dinner without us all banging into each other.
There is one thing I'm not so happy about but it's fine. The cushions my Mom had on the chairs were fine but sort of calico country-like so I wanted new ones. I didn't want big tufted ones. I really wanted square seamed ones. These ones I found at Christmas Tree Shop are perfect except for the pattern. I'm not really a pattern person and these have a lot of pattern. They are the perfect kind of cushion though. I tried to look online for the same thing in a solid color but they were too much so I'm just going with these.
On a side note, please don't look at my curtains. I know they look like sheets. I have no luck with window treatments. What I need to put up are roman shades but they are unbelievably expensive. Anyway, now I have space for my projects. That little pile there to the left is something I've been working on. I have a few things left to do and then I'll tell you about it.

A Room Of Their Own

The kids are finally in their own rooms and they are both very excited about it. Now that it's done, I can't believe we kept them together for so long.

Grace is all moved in downstairs. She immediately put up a Tiger Beat poster so I guess there's no going back now.
It's a little cramped right now because she has the fish tank in there. They have turned into huge mutant goldfish that I think are going to live forever. I finally got her curtains up this weekend. I'm no good with window treatments and I avoid dealing with them.
The one project left to do is to paint her closet doors. Unfortunately, they are fully slatted doors that need to be primed and painted and I'm avoiding those too.
I shopped the back to college sales and got her a new comforter set and these crazy cloth butterflies and letters that stick on her wall.
Meanwhile, Declan has taken over their old room. It still has the baby nursery wallpaper we put up 10 years ago but he hasn't complained yet.
He now has his Lego's and toys in there and he could spend hours rearranging them. They are both so glad to have their own spaces and seem to be excited for each other too. Though, we are starting to hear a lot of "She's/He's in my room!".
Declan did a little Halloween decorating in his room today. He says the spiders are in a conga line heading to the next web.

Island Soccer

We have been having some laptops issues that are hopefully resolved. It's kept me from posting some things that have been going on around here. It seems my camera decided to join forces with the laptop and stop working properly. It looks like it was just temporary because all of my other pictures have looked normal except for all of the ones I took last Sunday. All of my postcard perfect photos of our trip out to Peaks Island are blue. My knowledge of Photoshop isn't enough to fix them so I'm just going to pretend that I did it on purpose to be artsy.

Declan spent the beginning of the summer obsessed with the World Cup. Because of this, we decided to sign him up for Portland soccer. He started a couple of weeks ago on Team Netherlands. He's about 1/16th Dutch through me so I'm happy that's his team. Peaks Island is a part of the city so every team has to make one trip out there to play them.
The ferry ride is only about 15 minutes long but I love it. I would live out on the islands in a second but it's not exactly convenient. To me, it's like Rangeley only out on an island. In our dream world, where we both work at home, we would be out there.
Once we got out off the ferry, we had a little bit of a hike through the woods to reach the field. We would be in better shape if we lived out there.
Declans team kicked some Peaks Island butt. Not that anyone was keeping track except all the parents and the kids. Declan scored his first goal and we turned into THOSE parents. We got a little excited.
Grace was not too much into the game. She did insist she would need a chair to sit in so she carried this one all the way from home all by herself. What you can't see through her hair is that she is using my phone to call home and leave a message or three for the dog.
The field was full of yellow flowers so we passed some time braiding them together. Then I used them to decorate Grace while she posed moodily. Watch out America's Next Top Model!
Once the game was over we had a little bit of a wait for the next ferry. Perfect excuse for some ice cream. I hope he keeps playing sports so we can keep going over there.

The First Day Of School

Summer went by very slowly and very quickly. Today, Grace and Declan finally started back to school. Portland still keeps their traditional start date of the day after Labor Day so at least the poor kids didn't have to go back in August.

Declan is off to the 2nd grade. He is excited but doesn't really want to talk about it. It's not cool to like school but he does.
Grace was much less excited and very much wanted to talk about it. Today was her last first day of elementary school. Next year she'll be in 6th grade and will go off to middle school. I don't want to talk about that. Carly was very excited for the bus stop. So many new kids to jump on. She got put back on the porch after the first few showed up.
Grace did not want her picture taken but she relented at the bus stop and posed by the apple tree. She was in place for about 2 seconds so this was the best I got. She is very much like her mother.
Her friends came past and they were walking to school so she headed off like a super cool kid.
Declan waited for the bus and he was off too. 2nd graders do not need their parents to help them. At least in front of their friends.