How to Find Your Wife in Wal-Mart

In the past two weeks, I have been located by Jim in two different ways while shopping in Wal-Mart. On the first occasion he heard the distinctive snapping and popping of my ever present 3-piece minimum gum wad, three aisles over. That surprised me. I hadn't thought gum snapping could be so individually recognized. The second occasion was not surprising to me, nor will it be very surprising to most of you. I had coincidentally and pleasantly run into Aunt Suci in the egg aisle and as often happens when I am conversing, a rather loud laugh escaped my lips. Those of you who know me well, try not to be shocked when I tell you that he heard it halfway across the store and used it as a guiding beacon to where I was......


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Tell's Creatures

Some are small and fragile like the wounded butterfly that fluttered from foot to foot at Katie's party....




Some are used in expressions from Tell, such as, "I'm so hot I feel like a cooked chicken!" This was said while Jim and I chatted, in the very warm sun, with Charlene (Tracy) whom I had met again after 20 years. Not long after that, we headed home, encountering the last two creatures of the day.




Some seem out of place like the flock of seagulls sitting in a Yarmouth open field nowhere near the ocean. As Tell noted as we drove past them, "Now there's something you don't see everyday."


And finally, some just make us scream in fright. That's what happened at about ten o'clock this evening when Tell came up the stairs and encountered a baby northern ring-neck snake on the second step.



Jubal picked it up for us and it's currently sitting in a plastic container on our counter so the others can see it in the morning before we let it go. This is the third time in four years that we've had one of those baby snakes on the upper level of our house. (I blogged about the first time in a post called 'The Visitor")The other two times we found them in the bathroom which is a few feet from the stairs. I'd like to know the "why" of that.
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Friday Fog

The last day of Adventure Camp for Atira was also the last day of CYIA for Jubal and Nolan so after eating Lear's ice cream in the fog by the Wiscasset Bridge, Atira, Tell and I headed up to camp and met Jim there for the CYIA Commissioning Service.



Listening to 110 young people recite Philippians 2 and sing with the rain pounding on the camp chapel roof is a pretty enjoyable experience.



It's also enjoyable to catch up with all the people that you only see once or twice a year at camp. With the visiting finished and the hour getting late we headed back home. Emily Hodgdon, who had successfully trekked up earlier on her own despite bad GPS directions, followed us home and as a new driver successfully completed her first solo trip through pea soup fog on the Maine Coast. Looking outside this morning it appears it will be another foggy drive to Raymond for Katie Knights graduation party today.

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Mohawk Walk

One of the Adventure Camp activities for some of the kids yesterday was the "Mohawk Walk", a rope challenge that requires the group to work together in order to get everyone across the rope which, in this case, spanned three trees.









(I thought blog reader Nicole Viele would appreciate her daughter Cara's classic expression in the last photo)
The name of the activity piqued my interest so I researched a bit to find out why it might be named Mohawk Walk and found that there is a tradition of Mohawks working on high-rise buildings and bridges dating back to the late 1800's when Mohawks from
near Montreal were hired as laborers in exchange for the use of their land while building a bridge across the St. Lawrence River. Joseph Mitchell, who wrote "Mohawks In High Steel" said..

"The Indians were given jobs as common laborers, which didn't interest them. What they liked to do was to climb out on the bridge. "It was quite impossible to keep them off," a bridge executive wrote years later. They walked the narrow beams high above the river as calmly as they walked the streets of their village.

At the time, most bridge workers were veterans of great sailing ships, comfortable with working aloft. But the Mohawks pestered the bridge foreman until they were given some training in riveting and put to work. They immediately proved themselves to be what a company executive called "natural born bridgemen."

Soon, the Mohawks were working on high bridges and buildings across Canada, and then in the United States. Even the collapse of the massive Quebec Bridge in 1907 that killed some three dozen of the Indians didn't dissuade them. To the contrary, the thrill of the danger of the work drew more Mohawks than before."

I'm glad I wondered about the origin of the name. It was an interesting bit of reading.

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Angry, Wet Birds

Down pouring rain made the first day of Adventure Camp a soggy one but only detracted slightly from the fun. The biggest victim was the giant Angry Birds game which had been set up in the church park. It had to be relocated under cover. Four drenched leaders and several saturated boxes later, Sue, Greg, Nicole and I had the game set up under the cavernous striped tent.



While chilly leaders watched, the game commenced...





Ready,


Set,



Launch!



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Seaweed City

Yesterday's start to my 2013 beach season coincided with a King Tide caused by the Supermoon. Normally the laggers, Annah and I (with the Foreman kids in tow as well) arrived first to Crescent Beach within 30 seconds of each other. I'm inclined to believe this could only have been a result of the super lunar activity. Descending from the boardwalk, we found our normally expansive area of sand was greatly reduced.



Checking with the lifeguards before we set up camp, Annah discovered that there was still about an hour before high tide. This tide had brought with it an unusual amount of seaweed and ocean debris as well. This was evident later in the day on my bathroom floor after Tell's swim trunks had been removed.


Despite the kids looking like the Creature from the Black Lagoon each time they emerged from the surf, it was a great day in Cape Elizabeth.



I even managed to provide Alyssa with a potential picture for her non-existent Facebook profile.......will we ever see it?



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In Between Days

Well, check VBS off the To-Do List for another year..



Decorating, teaching, singing and sword fighting...all complete.



Now, three days to recuperate before Adventure Camp starts Wednesday. at the church.

Sunday: Jim and I pawned Atira and Tell off to the Foremans after church for an afternoon date. Creatures of habit, we ended up at Applebee's. When the power went out, the visit became a bit more memorable. We had managed to be one of the last people to get an order in so we ate in a silent, mostly empty restaurant and were the last patrons to leave. It was a unique experience.



Watching Superman save the world in 3-D was next. Having two lenses makes for a much better Man of Steel. I learned this after watching half of The Hobbit with Jim, Don and Deb before realizing that my glasses had only one lens. It was a pretty good movie with great graphics but I like the portrayal of the Superman character much better in Superman Returns.

Today: I slept in and messaged with Chris in Australia before pulling myself out of bed to clean the house a bit. My only required project, making three Angry Birds for Adventure Camp, was brought to straight to my door by Greg. It was so nice to not have to leave the house all day.




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Random Acts of Friendship

Some days the little blessings of friendship pile up nicely.... First thing this morning, Todd S. paying for my Dunkin' Donuts coffee from two cars up in line...Mid-day, a great conversation with Randy K..late afternoon, a nice drive with Mary M. (Which included a wild turkey with chicks sighting) and finally, enjoying some fresh chicken eggs from Greg and Jen H. for supper....sometimes it's the little things in life....

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Father's Day 2013

We left one of our children at church yesterday. In this unorganized family, that travels to church in two cars, it was bound to happen. How we made it to child #4 before it did, is beyond me.
I had stayed behind to practice some music with Sandy and Danny and I knew thatJim headed to Shaw's for fresh bread and deli meat, per our usual Sunday plan. What I didn't know was that Jim had texted me that Tell was still at the church playing with Ben & Zack and needed to come home with me.
As I exit Route 1, nearly home, the phone rings in my purse. I miss the call from Greg Hodgdon but see Jim's missed text which reads:

"You have Tell. Seat is in the truck."

I think to myself: "No. Actually, I don't have Tell. Now I know why Greg called"......sure enough the phone rang again and that WAS the reason. Long story, short, we finished the day with four children and even managed to keep track of them long enough to make it to Witch Spring Hill to treat Jim to a Banana Split for Father's Day.




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Location:State Rd,Bath,United States

Final Finish Line

Coastal Running Club had their final race today at Twin Brook Rec. Facility in Cumberland this afternoon. Jim and Jubal worked a half day at a job nearby and met us there. While the Bath team warmed up, the tired pair found a spot on the gently sloping hill above and sprawled out, baseball caps over faces, waiting for the event to begin.




A Cross-Country meet is one of those events in which you wait two hours for a race that's over in less than ten minutes.





Both Atira and Tell ran well. Tell was happy to have beaten seven other runners, instead of only one like the last time he raced on this course. I understand his frustration, since I consistently placed in the bottom 10 during my Cross-Country days. My elementary school best friend, Gracie can attest to this as she was often keeping me company at the back of the pack. That experience of bringing up the rear has always prompted me to stay by the sidelines cheering on those last runners. I remember that it's tough to keep going when you know the field is empty behind you.



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Meeting Mutual Friends

Ollie and Carla visiting from Virginia+ our house FULL of their friends = Great Fun!
I'm so tired, but what a fun night.



Tonight's highlight:
Faithful blog reader, Bill Batty, finally meets the famed Buxton Crowd. Well, most of them anyway...





















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Twins, Ten Years Apart

Jubal (17) and Tell (7) have a very
close relationship. They fool around, rough-house and argue together so often that sometimes I feel like I have twins ten years apart. This was the exchange from downstairs while I cooked supper this evening.

Tell: (hollering from downstairs)
"M-o-m! Jubal just bit me!"
Me: "Jubal. Seriously?"
Jubal: (laughing)"I didn't mean to. I was pretending to bite him and his arm got in the way."

I looked at Jim. We chuckled and shook our heads. I think the explanation would have made more sense if it came from the 7 year old.



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