Miss Jasmine

My dear friend Claire has a very sweet canine daughter named Jasmine (Jazzy for short). While I was over scrappin' in her gorgeous new scrap room yesterday I took some snaps of Jazzy and thought I'd share a few. Isn't she sweet?

Marc's Paintball Extravaganza!

Our dear friend Marc is turning 40 in October (yikes, we're starting with the 40th birthdays already) and his wife Deb (Julia's godparents BTW) totally pulled off his "dream day" for his birthday celebration.

The big event of the day was paintball. Now, neither Neil or I had ever done this before so it was quite an experience. Anyone who says it doesn't hurt is LYING. It's been 9 days since paintball and I still have the remnants of my bruises. The best ones being on my posterior (thank you, Marc). I took full advantage of the opportunity to shoot my husband and not get arrested for it. Neil had a beauty of a welt on his jaw (sorry, hon).

I have to say it was a lot of fun though. I would do it again, and would try VERY hard not to get hit next time, especially at close range. I'm wearing gray cropped sweats and a black shirt. Neil has on jeans and a blue sweatshirt.

Happy 40th Marc!!

Here is the link to the photos Deb took.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8ActG7Jm4cNFFXM&notag=1

One of our new "housemates"

So, I've been doing a lot of working at home lately. CIGNA is remodeling and has asked us all to be "flexible" during this time (read: I have a cube mate for the first time in 10 years). So, now that I can VPN from the house, I just work at home. So, I'm innocently sitting in my basement on Friday and my new "friend" appeared. As many of you know I am mortally afraid of spiders.

To give you a relativity, the numbers on the clock are about an inch tall.

When I went to pick the kids up on Friday I grabbed my flip flops and there was ANOTHER one of these enormous spiders (wolf spiders??) in the kitchen.

I told Neil I was moving if I saw another one. In deference to our finances Neil graciously cleaned all the webs off the outside of the house. I'm hoping it helps. Otherwise there could be pictures of me on your blogs as your new housemate.

First Day of School

As the Staples add says, "It's the most wonderful time of the year..." The start of grades 3 and 1 are off with a bang. Both kids were very excited to get back to their friends. Devin literally bounced off the couch this morning when I told him it was time to go. He walked about 10 feet ahead of us the whole time and I think I heard a "'Bye" from him before he took off up the ramp, but it's hard to say. I got to see him a little later in the library when I volunteered. He left without saying goodbye. His teacher, a wonderfully cheerful man named Mr. Kriticos, caught my eye and said, "Wow, didn't even say good bye." I laughed and told him he was happy to have me there, but he certainly wasn't going to let any of his friends know that! It's official, the "little boy" is gone. But the big boy has proven to be a delightful replacement - so far.

Julia who was equally excited got a little nervous as she waited in line. I call this the "apprehensive" look. She rallied pretty quickly though and had a great day.

When I picked them both up I got the detailed blow by blow from Julia about who did what, that she had art, they wrote, they read books and if they collect 100 "coins" they get to have a pajama day!!

Devin was a little less forthcoming. "I get to switch desks a lot. Mine is the third one from the bookshelf." And there you have it.

Based on how tired they each are, and how dirty Devin's feet were when they got home, I'd say it was a highly successful first day. And no homework!!

Labor Day Weekend in Maine

What a way to wrap up the summer! We had a gorgeous late summer/almost feeling like fall weekend in Maine with Mom, Dad and Heather. It was a little too windy for kayaking in Wells, but not to waste the drive we stopped at this great mini-golf place that had 2 courses and an arcade. Kelly got 2 (count 'em 2) holes in one and Devin won a free ball pitching session for getting a hole in one on the last hole! Then he proceeded to win the jackpot of 500 tickets on an arcade game afterwards. Crazy luck, this kid! Please note the incline on one of the holes - gave me vertigo!

Another cool thing that happened was the discovery of the fallen bird's nest and 6 little babies in the front yard of the cottage. Heather valiantly gloved up and with the help of a Corona box we managed to get the nest back into the tree. To our relief the frantic parents came right back to feed them. We had one more "loose bird" the next day, but the box seemed to contain them pretty well. No one said nature conservation was easy!

Played both the Wii (is it possible to get tennis elbow from a video game? The answer is yes.) and the GREATEST game on the planet called "Apples to Apples". Run, don't walk to your closest toy store. The highlight was any one of Dad's hysterical word pairings. My favorites were matching "horrifying" with Heather's choice of "meatloaf" and Dad's "baby showers". I almost stroked out.

We got some planting in (Julia, who still couldn't possibly be genetically mine with her hands in the dirt) a trip to the beach and some rides. See Devin riding solo on the Ferris wheel. One of the many, many benefits of being 48 inches tall!

We had a great time, and although it's sad to see summer end, it was a nice way to see it go. Next up?? School!!!