First Day

Hello again!
As the girls gathered their supplies and backpacks, the smart beagle put 2 and 2 together and KNEW it was bus time! All morning long, she refused to go out to do her business in the backyard (where she's Queen of the Swamp). Nope, instead she knew it was a school day and it was her routine to be there for when the bus comes, every morning!

My younger daughter was thrilled today was school and she was entering the middle school but my older daughter has been a middle school student for a couple years so it's old hat and she was not as excited.

Am me? I am VERY NERVOUS about starting my first day of school. Biology and a bio lab. Yikes!

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WOW, NJ........

I can remember a couple floods like Irene created, when I was a girl living in Montgomery Township, NJ.

Wishing my old state and all the the people in it the best and hoping for a speedy cleanup.

New Day and No Damage From Irene

Was sort of hoping for a new roof...

Seriously, looking around our yard, you wouldn't know there was a hurricane. Sadly, other parts of the state and VT didn't fair so well. Hope cleanup is easy and quick for them.

Storm's Bearing Down

Come On Irene!
Brought in the potted plants such as the brugmansia to keep safe. Moved things around in the garage and pulled in several other things, all in prep.

Speaking of prep, making this pork roast in the crock pot. Will be easier to run this pot on the generator than entire oven, should the power go out. Aaaah New England ingenuity.


At 8am we already had several power surges and a few good gusts. Has been raining a lot; started yesterday and hasn't stopped. Not sure if yesterday's rain was part of this storm but in most ways, does it matter?

As of 8a, NH has had 3000 power outages. We hardly ever lose power. When NH had the huge ice storm, we lost power but it was back up and running long before the rest of the town. We were lending our generator to others, while they waited. We live near Amherst's safety complex, so our side of the street is first in line to go online.

Love this weather! Wish us luck!

Going To The Bookstore

Wouldn't you know it... Monday, my first day of college is cancelled! What a unique way to start a school year. Funny to be looking for cancellations so soon!

We went to MCC's bookstore and bought my books for my 3 classes. Did so a bit late and was relieved to learn all my books were still available.

My Executive Keyboarding (typing) class is closed so I saved money on that classes books. Fortunately I taught myself how to type well and am skipping the first 1/2 of the class. By the time the second 1/2 starts either someone will drop or another class will have started by then; there were several other people wanting the class.

Can't believe how expensive they were. GOOD THING I CAN SELL THEM BACK! I can remember when I was in college for art, all the academic students would be so jealous because the art students would not have to buy as many books. We artsy-fartsies would quickly reminded the academics that our art supplies were very expensive and we had to purchase new stuff with every new project. Those supplies couldn't be resold, so at least this time around I can recoup some of my expenses (or at least 1/2).



(why do I always look like an old lady clutching my bag?!!?)


Here's my younger daughter having fun just outside the bookstore's door.



When school starts, wish me luck!!

It's Official

I have a student ID number and am enrolled in some courses! So funny to say I am a college student.

Been So Long

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I've pureed a healthy little meal for a little tike! Yesterday a friend's son just had a tonsillectomy, poor thing. But soon he will not be as sick!

I pureed some good pork roast for him to enjoy, for his first real meal (and not ice cream like all day yesterday). The pork roast was slow cooked in a crock pot for 2 days and what was left of the meal I saved for after Joey's scheduled surgery.

Now I am off to cook a batch of brownies for the rest of his family. They love my homemade recipe and always expect it during "family times".

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Hibiscus

Well...............
Gardening always puts me in a better state of mind. After this morning, I definitely need to turn some soil and do lots of gardening.

Wanted to share this Dinner Plate hibiscus. Ordered online a package of Dinner Plate Hibiscus seeds and I popped ONE seed into a pot and within days, it sprouted! Thinking all my hopes were put into this one seedling... what if something happens to it?

So I planted some four more seeds and this time nothing happened as quickly with all (4). Looked up online how slow the seeds are to germinate, I am amazed at how lucky I was the first time!

It's so spindly and I am now over-protective - I think I'll bring it inside with the brugmansia, for the winter.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!

My husband had another seizure.

It's been over a year. A YEAR! We finally started to breath easier in the mornings. We finally started planning life like normal people. I was accepted to college for continuing ed. Matt's recently taken new job contracts outside our usual 'circle' because he was starting to drive himself. Now what?

He's been so good with the meds and with the doctor appointments, getting good night sleeps and now we are back to square one. What is square one? I know we increase his meds... hello doctor?

How sad. Please keep him and the rest of us in your thoughts.

Recent Garden Photos

Hello again!
I took some photos recently of the gardens. This time of year, the plants are pretty tired of showing off and look it. But, here and there you can see some plants still fully charged.


Hard to believe the snow covers the sundial during the winter.

Here's a new addition to the backyard. Needless to say I try to stay away!

This plant poking between the hydrangeas is a pumpkin we didn't intend to grow. All of a sudden we noticed the huge beautiful leaves and decided to see if the plant would actually be fertile. In fact it was and there is a healthy pumpkin now growing under the umbrella of leaves!

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HaPpY BirThDay

It's my oldest daughter's birthday! Happy 12th, sweetheart!

Well It's been 1 Year And

and 24 hours since my husband's epic day of seizures.

Finally, I feel a little bit of the heat turned off. Wish I could feel like it's all over, but at least I can say we've never gotten this far and will definitely go longer.

Congrats hubby. It's been many years. I am so psyched for you; you've been through a lot.

My Windowboxes

Hello again!
It as beautiful looking out the windows from the inside as it is to look at them from the outside. The flowers have grown so much.

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In The Mail!

Hello again!
My daughters had another really wonderful time with their family on the lake in Naples, ME. Their aunts, uncle and grandmother really tried to give them a memorable week and as a thank you, I created 3 scrapbooks for each and sent them out in the mail. The books should be arriving hopefully today.

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Refinished Green Mirror

Daughter's birthday is coming up soon and she's at the tween age. Time to give her an updated room.

She wants EvErYtHiNg green. Just refinished a mirror in Spring Green (she chose the color).

Will be antiquing for other furniture pieces and refinishing them in green. (She has a twin 4 post pineapple bed which is in great antique shape and matches her sister's twin bed. That'll stay the same.) May not have it all done in time, but she'll have a green room soon enough.

So Fun! This Is Where We Used To Live

And where we got married and had both our children! Holliston is more like my old hometown than my REAL hometown does. So much happened in Holliston....

In fact, we lived in Mudville. The very SAME Mudville as mentioned in the "Casey At Bat" poem. Learned that from a very good friend and town historian.

Holliston
"Holliston
Native Set to Star in New Horror Sitcom
holliston.patch.com
FEARnet has issued a greenlight for "Holliston," a horror sitcom created by accomplished film director and former Hollistonian Adam Green."

New Halloween Cards

Hello again!
Halloween is my favorite holiday; always has been. I saw these stamps and HAD TO HAVE THEM. Really like the clear cling style stamps. Several images come in a package and the package costs about the same as the wood-mounted rubber stamps. There are a couple more images which came in this package but these are the ones which I've done so far.

The color border is really a bright orange but it's coming across as red on the computer.... oh well.
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So Glad To Have My Girls Home.

So many great stories and photos came home with them, too. They really had such a great time and are beaming!

Another Long Term Contract! Congrats!

So pleased for my husband because another long term contract has been tossed his way.

Great news but at the same time a little scary. Can he handle the old contracts and all these new ones? After a year free of his condition, will it return with the stress of the extra work and long hours? (It's been a beautiful, stress-free year since his condition hit rock bottom.)

Thankfully these days he mostly telecommutes; the extra work doesn't mean more driving for me! I get so nervous driving in and out of Boston and on Route 128 in general.

Best Novel THE HELP

Is soon to be a movie! I am so excited. Date night movie, for sure.

Digital Scrapbooking

Wow, it only took me creating a couple scrapbook pages by hand to realize I prefer to do it digitally! Colors are not as vibrant and as neon, in real life...

With a solid knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator I can create these scrapbook pages better on the computer than by hand and I love the features such as 'masking' when inserting the photos. It's so much easier this way! And I created all my own clipart and titles, right on the computer. Too cool to to think "I need...." and bam, I have it ready to go.

Here's a template I created for miniature golfing> Waiting for the photos and this page's done. (FYI: those are supposed to be golf balls, in the title. May look a tick better in person.)


And a template I created for my daughters' vacation page... just waiting for the return of my girls and their photos.


This is a finished page and is inserted in the book before the one seen just above. It is about our vacation while the girls are gone...
Regular work week for us, with some good lunches out and one celebratory dinner. Hubby got a new client and another long-term contract. So psyched for him.

If you would like some help designing these pages, please feel free to contact me for suggestions! Contact info is on my Bio page.

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