Calling all sports fans...

I just want to say THANKS!

I leave for my big "walk" on Thursday. We start our walk on Friday at 7:30 a.m. So if you think of it take a moment and send Sarah and I some good thoughts, prayers, love---whatever. We will need it.

With the help of friends and family, I have raised 2,300 dollars to support the Susan G. Komen foundation. Our team has raised 50,600 dollars!!!!!!!!! Isn't that incredible???? I feel so proud to be part of such event. Thank you Sarah for doing something so simple-just asking.

I hope that Mona knows that I am doing this. I will keep her in my heart and I know that doing this may make a difference for some family some where...and that makes any blisters so worthwhile. We miss her. I thank her everyday for her son-who loves me so well and didn't even hesitate to say YES! when I asked him if I could do this.

Thanks to my family members who have contributed to to making this possible on so many levels-making donations-big and small (every penny counts)-encouragement in the form of new sneakers, babysitting so I could go shopping for the essentials, words, emails and general expression of pride in this accomplishment. OR one of the biggest contributions-watching my kids so that I can even get to the event to participate. So much love and support.
My friends from far and near-people surprised and supported me. I think I even had a woman from high school make a donation after seeing my blog from my h.s. alumni page. All of these things touched my heart.

Please know that I will carry each and every one of you with me on these 60 miles. Actually, know that you will be helping to lift my feet and carry me over the 3 days.
I am so blessed.
In the words/thought of a good friend-What a charmed life I live!

How we are holding up....

We are on day 6 of Steve's trip out west and this is OFFICIALLY the longest Steve and I have ever been apart. We still have 6 days to go until we see each other again. So how am I holding up? Let me just state emphatically, THIS SUCKS! The only one who doesn't really seem affected is Molly. She doesn't have a clue. So lucky to be two. Today she ran off to Amy and gave her a big hug. All weekend she had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa Swenson. Giggling, laughing, playing. While Ella and I were in the fetal position crippled by our sadness.

Okay I am being a little dramatic-but you get my drift.
I got a couple pics from Steve last night...
This one was for the girls...


And this one was for ME! I got a present. YES!


Do you understand why I miss him so?????????

I love my job....

We have this amazing music/band director at our school. Part of his awesomeness is that he has brought dance dance revolution, guitar hero, american idol, and this drum video game into our school. SO...today I pitched to my principal that I should have Guitar Hero in my office. His words, "so Beth, are you saying that Guitar Hero is therapeutic?" "Yes Lloyd, Lloyd all null and void, I am." I replied. (I didn't really say the null and void part-but in my head I did. and it is only because he is awesome.) "For you or the kids?" he quiered. "FOR BOTH".
I am getting GUITAR HERO for MY OFFICE!

And as just a little example, there is a boy who I have been trying to connect with and we played yesterday and today. Today, he challenged us to play Iron Man on HARD. The other day we played it on Medium and we got like 90%-95% correct. So he said we needed a challenge. At the end we were both exhausted and had fumbled through with only 60% correct. He turned to me and said "BUT we got through it, Mrs. Nason." And we high-fived.

Rock on!

How can we be so lucky?

This morning I had the task of getting the girls up and out of the house with me when I leave for work at 6:45 a.m. I was reminded (again) of what understanding, flexible, and happy kids I have. Ella was up smiling this morning and got ready and into the car all by herself. Molly-moo, on the other hand, had to be woken up gently but still smiled and got excited to know we were going to Amy's house. All my worries were washed away by these two kiddos and their positive attitudes.
For those of you who don't know, Amy is our new babysitter. We were sad to lose April last spring and really didn't think we would ever be so lucky again. BUT Grandma Mona must be looking out for us and pulling the strings of fate because we found Amy. She lives in our town 5 minutes from us and has two daughters, 8years and 8 months. Ella loves "her new big sister" and Molly gets to be the big girl for a change. SO-we are so thankful that in this crazy, stressful time we have the help and care of such a wonderful woman, who my kids love!

Amy-being made into a Fairy by Molly (her biggest fan)


Katie-(She has a spot in Steve's heart, already, the little peanut)

ahh this show

We are all a little blue here in Maine

Steve left this afternoon for ten days with the Bruins. Daddy, we miss you!
Ella came out of bed tonight teary, "Mommy, I miss daddy!" I know I miss him too, I said. "I miss him more than I ever miss him when he is in Boston." So sweet. But we will count the days together until he comes back. We will fill our time with fun and try not to think about how much we miss him toooooo much.
Here are some pics from when Molly spent the day with Steve and I took the van keys with me to work! Oops!

I think we have done something right...

Tonight at dinner, we were talking about Steve's upcoming Bruins' job traveling out west and leaving us here for 10 days. Ella was not so sure about this whole hockey thing, but she was sure about one thing. GIRLS PLAY SPORTS! Last year, we took a family trip down to Boston to watch the Boston Roller Derby Dames have a bout. Packed a picnic dinner and made a night of it. Ella was enthralled. More enthralled then we ever knew as tonight she asked if we could go see another bout sometime. NICE! That's my girl, but I see Molly being more of the animal for this particular habitat. But I am up for being surprised. And as long as we don't read some of the names out loud on the ladies' outfits, i.e. Pussy Venom, Wanda Whipya, I think we are onto a new form of family entertainment. Just check out these powerful awesome women. Mild mannered (or not) career women by day-terrors on the rink by night.

Check out their website...
Boston Derby Dames

Ella's New Friend

We went to the Nightmare called Freeport, Maine, today. I went this morning dragging two unhappy little girls with me. Our goal was to find a duffle bag for me and a suitcase for Steve at the LL Bean Outlet Store. It was more of a nightmare then I could have ever imagined. I loath shopping. All shopping. Except maybe grocery shopping-that I can tolerate. We arrived into the main outlet area and already I could feel my shoulders and jaws tense. We parked where I thought we were near the outlet shop. So we started walking, and walking, and walking, and walking...until finally we ended up on the other side of LL Bean where there are huge new buildings being built and in desperation I stopped a woman with a green shirt one. "Please," I panted, trying to rope spazzy Molly in, "Please, tell me where the outlet store is!" "Okay," she responded all calm and non-plussed, "do you know where the entrance to the highway is?" My mouth dropped-back 5 miles the way we came into town. I DIDN'T EVEN NEED TO COME INTO TOWN! So already we had walked 10 minutes from the car. I won't bore you with anymore of this nightmare but let me tell you-it didn't get any better from there.
The good news-Ella's friend's dad called and said she could come over and play this afternoon. That lightened one little girl's day so all of our days were lightened.
This is a new friend from school. And I don't think I have heard Ella laugh as much as she did in the first 15 minutes together with her buddy. I think we will be seeing more of this little girl. I hope so, as much as I hope I see more of Ella's ears.

A lobstah

I forgot-the best kid craft project I have seen in a while. They had a lobstah project at Punkinfiddle today. Great use for paper towel rolls...you only need construction paper-pipe cleaners and something to poke holes in the paper towel roll for the legs and antennae.

So fun and so cute.

Molly was running all around making her lobstah fly. Or maybe it was swimming...yeah swimming.

Punkinfiddle 2007

We spent this beautiful day at Laudholm Farm's Annual Punkinfiddle. We introduced the Randalls to this quintessential Maine Day. With pumpkins, scarecrows, farm animals, sea creatures, horse rides, fiddle music, clam chowder, and traditional New England crafts being made we couldn't have had more fun. At lunchtime, we meet up with half of the Milne-Carlsons, which made Ella very happy to see her old friend, Lydia.

The line of scarecrows made by families...

I could not get this picture down to the bottom of the page-this was taken at home. Princess, our scarecrow, in her new home with some mums and pumpkins. And Molly with her camera face on.


The oxen were a huge hit. I would think it would suck to have your head locked in with someone else's.

The Nasons and Randalls working on our scarecrows.

The kids loving the scarecrows but not us taking a picture of them.

Petting and feeding the goats.

Check it out. Nice Boat. That one is for you, Dad.

Ella and her idol, Lydia. Poor Lydia...to be so adored...

Picking up Princess and bringing her home.

Princess The Scarecrow

Punkinfiddle 2006 and 2007

A friend called tonight to tell me she saw me on a video about Punkinfiddle.

HAHAHA!
I am at the end so you can either watch the whole thing or skip to the end. It is a nice little video though.

Tomorrow we are going to this year's event. YAHOO!

Today she is 5

The highlight of the day was moving the sticker from 4 to 5 years old in her classroom. She is no longer the only 4 year old in the class. Yippie! Ella had a great birthday and felt a ton of love from all corners of the country. Thanks for loving her!

"I love you Ella"

The cupcake decorator

Happy Birthday Girl!

Molly and her cake and the camera...

more party pics...

Ella had a fabulous birthday weekend. She was happy to know that her bud, Natalie, was going to spend the weekend with us. Yahoo! We decorated the house with "fabulous"decoration, we packed up the favor boxes, we got balloons, we made a cakes, Meme decorated it with the girls...we got dressed up. IT was an excellent day.

Didn't he remember days like these?

I had the worst day at work. But in the worst days, that is usually when we find the best in ourselves or others. Isn't that right? One of our h.s. kids committed suicide Sunday afternoon. I came in this morning and found out during a meeting with my Principal. I cried. For the rest of the day we all worked together, cried, supported, listened, made plans, heard things we didn't want to hear, envisioned things I hope I never have to see, and gave thanks for the beautiful things that exist in this world.
On my drive home today, I noticed for the first time that day that it was a beautiful day. Not just a beautiful day-a perfect day. The sky, the sun, the air... the Grateful Dead has a WHOLE channel on Sirius and I can't get enough of it lately. So I called Pete. My brother was getting lost in Kansas City, but we were still able to shoot the shit about the Dead and other good things. I stopped at the Farm to get our beautiful vegetables. Broccoli, carrots, leeks, grapes, tomatoes, eggplants, butternut squash-these gorgeous, delicious vegetables. And then I went home. HOME. That beautiful place-where my kids were running around with Jack and Natalie while the dads put wood in the back of Jay's truck. So peaceful and right. We ate pizza. I made cupcakes for Ella because 5 years ago that lovely bundle came into this world and she is going to celebrate with her class. Pink cupcakes. I snuggled my girls and am learning that Ella's new friend needs to go to the doctor's a lot and can't use foam-y soap so could I please get non-foamy soap for the class so that her friend can use it too or just get her her own soap. And I sat with my husband, and laughed as he fumbled through wrapping a present for Ella, and snuggled with ice cream to watch a favorite t.v. show. Through all of this the thought of this young man and his anger and sadness sneaks into my thoughts. And I know they will be floating around for a while. BUT I feel so lucky to be, in the meantime, surrounded by so much beauty.

Birthday Party!

Some pics to hold you over....