Spots before my eyes!

Seth and I went to Manchester today to an ear,nose,throat Dr. for some spots he had in his throat. His imagination went wild and he thought he had some horrible thing going on like cancer. We found out he was severely dehydrated. That's it. Thank goodness. By the time we got home he had downed about 6 bottled waters. All better!

Where did the summer go?

I can hardly believe that its been 3 months almost since my last blog! What a slacker I turned out to be.Let me begin to tell you about some of my summer adventures...I stayed with Bonnie,Pat,Linda,and some other ladies at Wells Beach Maine ,Pat had her silver bullet camper and Bonnie has a newer one next door. I stayed with Bonnie,with all my gear,oxygenator,tanks,cpap,etc! Its an ordeal getting everything organized to go anywhere.She was very gracious letting me have her queen bed,she has a great bathroom with shower,etc. It used to be you would have to walk though the campground to get to the common showers. I just loved it. We went to the ocean and the pool and just hung out for 3 days! There was a large lobster dinner,1 1/2 pounders,a chinese dinner and a steak rolled up with veggies dinner. All of it was very yummy. The girls always do it up right.We had a good time catching up with all our stories,etc.

Another adventure I had was going to Leslies house for 3 days...Saratoga Springs. We got lost going there, off on the wrong road so it took us forever to get there! I was kind of cranky by the time I got there. We had to take a detour on her street. We were only minutes of being at her house and an oil truck had tipped over and they were detouring everyone around the Race track road.Aye ya ya......There were only 65,000 people leaving the track that day!I ended up stopping at a park and having her come and lead us there. We went to the Bartlett garnet mine ,always a beautiful ride into the Adirondacks. We stopped and got beautiful fruit and veggies at a roadside stand. I thought the mine would be a little different in my head before we got there. You had to pay ,then wait for a convoy to go to the pit,listen to their spheel about the mine, then you had 45 minutes to either dig with your hands, or a small childrens beach pail and shovel, you couldn't bring your own picks or hammers. If you wanted to stay you had to go back up and start all over again with the convoy,spheel and your 45 min. It was fun,and a bit of work,but we found some. Actually when we got home a garnet was in the center counsoul of the car and Seth had dumped candy in that spot and cracked a tooth eating a garnet! Ahhhh memories....

We also went to our precious Oscars Smokehouse in Warensburg NY. We LOVE it there, one of our favorite places. The cheese and smoked meats are out of this world. We found out when we got home that Oscars burned to the ground! We are devistated and heartbroken.

Independence Day!

Elaine relaxing from her genealogy.

We had a great party on the 4th.I worried about the weather all week since we have had rain for over 3 weeks,every single day! I bought a tarp for the porch roof, it is so leaky,from when the kids were little and shoveled the snow off the roof ,ripping up shingles along with the snow. So the tarp went up and we stayed pretty dry all afternoon. The party went for about 6 hours! One couple had to drive through dime size hail to get to my house. We also had thunder storms,torrential downpours,but also plenty of sunshine. It really was a very good day for a gathering.

We had so much food for the party.Tortellini Salad, Frogs eye salad,potato salad,green salad,fruit salad in a watermelon bowl.,2 cheesecakes,cupcakes,2 watermelons,chips,hot dogs and ribs. Everything was so yummy. This pic was taken before all the food arrived. The people who have catered before at the party said that one of these bowls was enough for 30-40 people! Needless to say,everyone had plenty to eat AND bring home. What a great country we live in!

Samantha gave up a wedding of a friend to come to the party. We appreciated them being here.

Aaron Handy discovered that he loves blueberries. Yup hes a native boy all right! I think all little boys like blueberries, I know most of my grandsons do!

This is my favorite picture of the day! Jim Shepard with glow glasses over his own glasses! Look at the kids faces.So cute.

Cookie holding down the fort.She and Elaine were the calm in the middle of the storm!

Greg Noyes with Aaron Handy

Jon and Joy Noyes with their 4 sons. Aaron and Amy Handy with little Aaron. Jeremiah and Samantha with Caleb,Jim and Lil Shepard,Cookie Whiting,Elaine Goodall,John and Donna Acker,Seth and I.

Aaron Handy Jr.

loves his stuffed animal.

Aaron the dad was our BBQ man.Hes a very good cook.

Caleb with glow in the dark glasses. He had a lot of glowing bling for the fireworks later. We watched them at Constitution Park and they were great till they had to put a hold on them because of the wind.The firework sparks were landing on people. Everyone went home early,we were home in 15 minutes ! Unheard of for fireworks with all the summer people who come up to watch them. Its taken 2 hours to get home in past years from the next town over! The Wolfeboro fireworks are fun because the bay is cram packed with boats who honk all night with all the lights on,its really memorable and different.A much livelier bunch goes there.

This turned into a deafening

Bannannagram game! What a rowdy bunch!Joy,Amy,Aaron,Dylan,Donna Acker and Seth. I thought our neighbors were going to call the police on us for being disruptive and laughing so much! It was a lot of fun being in the fray.

John Acker stays calm in any situation. Maybe he was sleeping... He has a new job with about an hour and 45 min. commute!

Dylan is growing up so fast. Hes quite the rap star.

Mans work. Brother Shepard and Aaron checking the ribs and hot dogs. They came out to perfection! Aaron is quite the cook ,he always gets asked to help at the church because he graduated from a culinary school.He made his own BBQ sauce,very yummy with a nice kick to it. He could make some serious money bottling it!

Brotherly love. Seth and Jeremiah Jeremiahs right shoulder is still not doing well. He goes in for another opinion and hopefully a different surgeon soon.

Joy brought this game over called Chuck-O. There are two boards you throw weighted pillows into and whoever gets more in the hole or on the board wins. I had to try my hand at it,I think my Oxygen tank made me lopsided.It was a lot of fun. I don't know how many more points you got if you pegged a child in the process!

The magic of bubbles. Everyone loves them, Matthew sure did! The porch gets nice and slippery when they are spilled though, fun for little boys to slide on until someone knocks themselves out. Thankfully we didn't have many mishaps other than a storm door breaking with lots of glass everywhere! No cuts or bruises though! So I guess you could call it a successful day with fun and games for all.

Super Petunia

For the last couple of years on mothers day Seth has bought Super Petunias for the porch from Devylders Farm. Last year we got purples and whites. This year we pared down and got one pink one. These are so huge, I just love them. And they always cost less than the local stores sell them for . We also got a geranium in a large pot. Its a brilliant red/orange color.

Our lilacs were very thick and prolific this year. So many cars would stop and just admire them. (We are at a stop sign so that may have had something to do with all the admiration.) I love the smell when your driving with the windows down. I watched one day as a big old butterfly was hanging on for dear life during a very windy afternoon. It was kind of like a carnival ride for the little guy. I thought it was pretty funny that he clinged on and didn't just fly away. He must have loved the smell too!

Our new lawnmower! We have been borrowing one for so many years now, what a pain. It took forever to drive to whoevers house ,load the thing,unload it,use it, load it,unload it......AHHHHH

So we decided to use the c.c. and get one.Its hard getting a job done when you don't have the right equipement for it.

An inside view of Devylders Farm. So many beautiful flowers to pick from.

Jeremiahs Birthday

We went to Jeremiahs house on his birthday. Samantha bought him his own scirptures and had them embossed with his name. He seemed very happy with them.

Caleb was running around with this mask on. It looks like the one I use for my cpap machine. He was a little mini me.

I had to wear this mask when we were cleaning out the workshop. I ended up getting pretty sick from the whole adventure. I got broncitis again and had to go on super cillin for a week. Im just getting over it now 3 weeks later! I start to feel better and get carried away and then I end up suffering for it. I just need to be more careful.Notice the hose comming out of the mask?

Letterboxing.

This is an old turntable in Wakefield . The track links up to other train tracks that run off the center. It was very old and heavy. I don't know how they moved it, its so big and cumbersome. Maybe they used horses or oxen. Some of these places that are listed for letterboxing are in the towns you live in and most people don't ever see these fun things. Ive lived here 30 years and never knew this was here!

Lorna stopped by and told me to jump in the car,she had something special to show me. So I obediently loaded myself into her car and off we went . I had never heard of letterboxing before. You can go on the internet and see where you can do this yourself in your own states. We got to an old pound in Wakefield and you can see by the pictures that the box was hidden in the

the stone walls. You really had to look hard to find it. The plus were the ladyslippers. It was in season and they were quite abundent in this pound. You really don't see to many of them now. They are very finicky flowers and don't do well with development and urban sprawl. It was fun and educational. I highly recommend this hobby to anyone!

Lupine Festival

This was a cool barn that we came across. I love the little squares in the silo. Its so artsy! Ive started taking pictures of some barns that I like. Actually Seth took this one. His pictures always come out better than mine. (He has a better camera,and a better eye). The rest of the pictures are of the lupine we came across. I think we left around 9 am and got home around 5.00. What a great day. We saw a fox on the Kanc, and a different kind of animal at a gift shop. There was a woman who sounded like she was from NY and as she was walking in to the shop Seth noticed she had a trail of T.P. hanging out of the top of her pants! He was like, you have to tell her, I was embarrased but yelled out the window and motioned for her to come over. I told her and she laughed and said, "Thats like something you would see on the television." What a hoot.

The lupine was so pretty. Most of it was a dark purple but there were a few pinks and whites. We wanted to dig some up and bring it home to start our own lupine field. But we didn't . I have since heard that quite a few people do that though. There was also a festival going on, I got a walking stick with a face on it. It was inexpensive and cute. I thought I could use it on rough ground. Seth spotted a woman that he had working under him for the Census. They chatted up a storm for about half an hour.

Sugar Hill

We went to a Lupine Festival at Sugar Hill,N.H. this Saturday and spent a beautiful day surrounded by mountains and flowers. This was a spot that we stopped at to have lunch. The people that owned the property had put a nice bench out with a monument to a beloved horse that they had, who use to stop here every time they took her out and would look at the mountain and graze. So there is a big boulder with her info on it and the quiet was just so soothing. Birds everywhere and little cheepers with such a beautiful view.

Alex and Gillian

Emily got some newer pictures of the kids and I thought they were pretty darn cute,so here they are.
Everyone seems to be growing up so fast! Alex has been very involved with Hockey this winter,he is the goalie, so the game depends on him. I havn't seen him in action but I'm told he's pretty good.They both come to church so I get to see them there every week. Thats always nice!

General Conference

We went to the church Saturday and saw the 2nd session of conference . I got a ride back with Lorna so Seth could stay for the priesthood session. They always have an ice cream social before hand. Sunday we went for the morning session and enjoyed it very much. There is always a luncheon,pot luck, in between so we stayed for that. I t's a good time to visit with everyone. We tried to stay for the second half but I got really tired and didn't feel that well. I have had issues with swelling in my head and neck so we went home and watched it on tv. It was a first that we got it on a regular channel, so that was nice. I just love conference and the messages that are given for us to enjoy and learn from!