YIKES. Again

Reilly has hit an ALL TIME HIGH of 51 POUNDS!!!!!

51 POUNDS!!!!!!




I think he gave our dog sitter those puppy-dog eyes and she totally fell for it. ::::sigh::::::


He is average 40 pounds. He is a big beagle to begin with, but 51 POUNDS??!?!??! The vet is going to have a fit.

Mind you Daisy is 15 pounds.


Yeah.


Tomorrow he starts walking with me. Both of us are losing this extra person (me)/dog(Reilly) we are carrying around.

creative juice in overtime

So, I have been inspired!!!!

Thanks http://knittyinthesouth.blogspot.com/ Becky.

As I was watching the Colts/Saints game, I WAS KNITTING for goodness sakes.

Sheesh, I can' t remember the last time I did that.

What am I making? A good old scarf. I need the practice, so that when I make something for someone in this house ( I can't make something for someone out of this house yet....don't want them looking at it like...Gee thanks, what is it) They may actually wear it. HAHA . Well thats the plan anyway.

On another note, I had a meeting with my "mentor" today. Boy was that something to behold. She smacked me up one side of the head and down the other. Figuratively speaking of course. No good pastor's wife will actually DO that in real life. I hope. It was a good thing though. I am such a rebel, Lord Jesus forgive this wicked heart.

Humility is a beautiful thing.

AND!!! I decided I am going to start walking again next week. I use the word decide very liberally. I used to walk 3 miles in 30 minutes every day. Before you get all impressed on me, let me say it was all my neighbor's fault. I mean encouragement. I kept telling her if she doesn't force me to wake up by showing up at my door, I ain't walking. Well, she did. So, this little irish woman 10 years older then me made me get in shape. Yup. She ran circles around me and I couldn't stand her for it.



We are starting again. After a lovely year long break.

Dog-gone it.

I'm tired already.

contest

OH! and I signed up for yet another contest, which undoubtedly, I will not win. :) lol.

BUT do not fear, I am always optimistic.!!

http://hskubes.blogspot.com/

So go here and see what fun stuff she has to offer!!!

Random Pictures

So, here are some random pictures, because there are too many to post.

On Sunday night, we walked down the street from our house to go hear the vets do a summer concert. Way cool.



Of course, we had to have seafood, so off to the FishShack to have....what else?? Lobster. (Actually, I had shrimp & scammed some lobster off of John) ( I shared me shrimp with him too ) The scenery from the place was incredible. It was all big windows on 3 side and it was on the ocean.



John & Lance kayaked the Atlantic ocean. They were out there about 4 1/2 hours. I am glad I didn't have a clue how crazy it was out there until after the fact. I would have been worried the whole time. And according to the guys, it was mad cold to boot.



BOSTON!! On Chloe's 19th birthday. We love Boston. Enough said.....



I told Chloe to take a picture of us with the Navy ship behind us. Do you see the navy ship? I don't.....

this is Gloucester. The famous of all seaports. Amazing.





And of course, the memorial in Glouscester to honor the fishermen lost at sea. If you have seen The Perfect Storm, this is the town. We saw the dock where the Andrea Gail set off from, and the other interesting places from the movie.

And hiking.... Beautiful scenery

And last but not least, this kitten kept joining us for breakfast and/or dinner. We ate outside alot, since the house had an outdoor patio. This kitten meowed his/her way to my kids' heart. Who am I kidding, John's too. Samuel begged to take it home. All I could think was "heck to the NO". We already have 2 cats too many in my opinion. To my relief, it was not a stray. But I told Samuel he could take a picture with it.....

And today.....we started school!!!

My baby is a third grader!!! I blinked.

Rocky Beach

So, on to the beach. There is a good reason Rockport is called Rockport. See, its a port, made of ROCKS. Actually, the whole state is just rocks.

This is a view of the beach we spent an awful lot of time on. We were told is was crowded. Obviously, they have never been to the Jersey shore. Crowded means shoulder to shoulder people. Our rental guy apologized for it being so busy. We were waiting for the crowds, until we realized, this was it!!! Yeah........



2 miles down from our beach, we went to the coast. This was NOT a beach, though it was just down the street. This is Halibut State Park. There is no way anyone can swim here. It was rough and rocky. No shoreline anywhere. Getting your toes wet was about all the water you were going to experience at this place. I'm not sure what was on Chloe's mind when this picture was taken, but it doesn't look very sisterly.



Back to our beach. The water was crystal clear, and low-tide was amazing. You could go out forever. If you were brave enough to freeze to death. The water was "refreshing". But true enough, we all got out there.





We met people from all over. From Seattle to Italy, and of course, the locals, which were such nice people. I am used to the New Yorker. All those things you see in the movies about New Yorkers.....they are all true.

Salem

We went to Salem

We had no desire to tour the witch stuff, but last time we went to Boston, I wanted to see the House of Seven Gables, but we didn't have enough time.

The house is in Salem. Right before we went to MA, I watched The Crucible. It is an amazing movie though I don't know if I would recommend it freely. Anyway, we went and we basically did the House, and the (Henry) Derby Market. The Market was charming, though had entirely too many witch/magic shops. None of which we went into.



John & Chloe. I am wondering why on earth witches think Salem belongs to them. After all, most of the people killed during the witch trials were Christians. Duh. And truly none were probably were witches if you read history right.






John & I in front of the house. We took the tour. It was mad cool. Did you know, it started with 3 gables. then as the owner got wealthier, it went to 5, then 7. Then hard times caused it to go back to 5. And it stayed at 5, until it become a "museum". Then the new owner didn't think anyone wanted to go see the house with just 5 gables, so she added the other 2 again.




Lance & Samuel in front of the house. The location of the house was right on the water's edge. The original owner was a sea captain. It was so serene and lovely, and the view was stunning. Also, they dragged (though there is a good technical term for this project) Nathaneal Hawthorne's birth home to the same area. It was originally abour 7 or 8 blocks away.

Anyway, it was cool. We are glad we went.

Rockport was amazing!! Pictures to come.....

And I think we are all ready for school again.

This is our 17th year homeschooling. I think I got it covered. :) We start school on Wednesday. Lance & Chloe in college, Samuel is a third grader!!!

And the adoption is in the works.

God is fabulous, even when life gets hard, and it does get hard.....Our good Lord is fabulous!!