Happy Birthday Steph!

I hope you have a great birthday!

Hot Coffee

Aaron and I watched a great movie yesterday. Have you ever seen/heard of the Martian Child? If not make a point to rent it. It came out in 2007 and it stars John Cusack. (He is one of my favorite actors.)

It was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. I want to tell you all about it. There are so many great things to talk about...but I want more for you to see it, so I won't spoil it. I am afraid if I tell you too much, you won't watch it. :o)

Let me know if you watch it and what you think. I promise you won't be disappointed.

*If you watch the movie, you will understand the title to my post.*

Scattered Ramblings

* I finally got a job! Nothing too exciting. I am the Central Cashier at NASB. I am a Navy civilian! Ha ha ha! Aaron keeps calling me a traitor. I count/deposit all the money that MWR handles on base and all the paper work that goes along with depositing it. There are other parts to my job, I just haven't learned them yet. I will keep you posted!

* I saw a bumper sticker today that said 'Driving Under the Influence of Hall & Oates'. Love it! If we would have been at a red light, I probably would have got out, knocked on their window and asked where they purchased it. Love me some Hall & Oates!

* Just got back from Portland. I found a good Nephrologist down there. I hope this one returns my phone calls!

* Maine has no billboards along their highways. There is a law that bans them (click here to read about it). I love the idea myself. It is nice to drive down the highways and be able to see nature and not a huge face of someone selling insurance. Although, I do see where there are a few downsides to the law. It really stinks for small businesses. Also, you have to know what exit number you need. You can't just drive down the highway (somewhere in the ballpark of where you know the store is located) and check the billboard for the exit. Trust me when I say this, we passed by Cabela's a few times the other day before reaching it.

* Money is disgusting! I should have believed my mom years ago when she told me it was dirty. You should see my hands after hours of counting it. Can you say hand sanitizer?!

That's it for now! Off to make chocolate chip cookies...

I can't help it...

Since it was such a beautiful day, Aaron and I set off on the Harley for a ride. Our original mission was to scope out a fishing spot for Aaron. We found him a spot and much more! When we turned on to the street we had been looking for I was instantly excited because I saw a sign for a lighthouse! I know what you are thinking...another lighthouse? I can't help it. I haven't seen many in my life and since we live in Maine why not take advantage of the opportunity?!

Here are pictures from our trip to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse in Rockland, ME: (Remember you can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them for better viewing.)

The stone walk way to the lighthouse.

On our way! The rocks used to make up the walk way were massive and beautiful.

The lighthouse up close. It didn't look like much to us at first until we realized you could climb all the way to the top of it!

The actual light of the lighthouse. I didn't get many pictures inside but it was a tight fit. The stairs were insane to climb. They were very windy and steep! I understood why a lot of people were not climbing to the top. But we could not resist!

One of the many gorgeous sailboats we saw around the lighthouse.

This picture does not do this sailboat justice. The four sails were amazing. I had never seen a sailboat this big before. I told Aaron it looked like they were coming to take over the little sailboat.

A picture Aaron took of me looking out the bedroom window. The lighthouse was manned up until 1963. In 1964, the lighthouse was fully automated.

This is the final sailboat we saw on the way back. The boat itself was magnificent but I was so excited about the dogs Aaron took this picture for me. Aren't they so cute in their life vests?

And finally, I am still trying my hand at this photo stitching thing. I didn't get it perfect but you can at least see the cool view from the lighthouse looking back to the land. Definitely click on this picture to enlarge it. I don't think blogger likes my weird sized pictures!


I hope everyone had a good weekend and that you have a great week!

Big Huge Labs

No, I am not talking about the dog breed but about a fun new photo website I found, Big Huge Labs . I found it the other day on a friend's blog and have been playing with my photos ever since. Check it out to see what fun new things you can do with your ordinary photos.

Here are a few photos I have enhanced at Big Huge Labs:

I inserted Gabriella into a film strip.

Briana and Delaney on a stamp.

Boone is scrambled into Polaroids.

Sydney done as bead artwork. Isn't this weird? It sort of reminds me of something done on a LiteBrite! Awww, I miss my LiteBrite...

Sydney in my very own Warhol picture.

This site is great fun and super easy to use. Have fun!

Happy Anniversary Nickie & Steve!

I can't believe it has been fifteen years already! I hope you have many more great years together! (Oh, and to all you readers out there, don't laugh at my teal dress. It was early 90's and my sister made me wear it!) ha ha! Love you Nickie!

How did this happen?

So, today I turned 31 years old. I don't know how it happened. Where did the years go? I remember when I thought 30 was a long way off. I am hoping 61 doesn't come as fast! Since Aaron had yesterday off (because he got a four day weekend) we decided to celebrate The Day-Before-My-Birthday Day! It sounds weird, I know, but hey this is me we are talking about!

So, we got up bright an earlier to head out to Reid State Park. We read on weather.com that the storms were rolling in early afternoon. We wanted to get to the park and enjoy what nice weather we could. Unlike many of the other Maine 'beaches' we had found, this one actually had sand! As soon as got there the weather started to turn on us. We ended up eating our Subway inside the truck so we wouldn't blow away. But we were so close, we couldn't leave without sticking our feet in the sand. Sticking my toes in the sand was cold and wet! Stupid me wanted a picture taken in front of the water. Of course I wasn't looking behind me and got nailed by a wave. My feet were freezing! I really felt like I had stuck my feet in a bunch of snow! Not wanting to get rained on we left the park.

See how gloomy it was out?

I bet not five minutes later the sun came out and things started to warm up. There wasn't a drop of rain that fell. We decided not to waste the drive out to Georgetown/Arrowsic, so we headed down to Squirrel Point Lighthouse. You couldn't see the lighthouse from the road. We actually hiked back in quite a ways to see it. At the end of the trail you could see the lighthouse far off in the distance. We were up for an adventure so we walked through wet sand, hiked over rocks, and slipped on seaweed to get closer. Just when it looked like we had gotten as close as we were going to get, Aaron tells me to wait and climbs up over a giant rock and disappears. He found a trail that will take us the rest of the way to the lighthouse. It turns out in the beginning of the trail we took a wrong turn and there was an easier trail that would have lead us all the way to the lighthouse.

This happens to us a lot! We always seem to take the harder route. But I kept telling Aaron all day that is wouldn't have been quite the adventure had we taken the easy trail. It was so much fun trying to maneuver our way to the lighthouse!

This is where the trail ended that we took. You can see the lighthouse far off in the distance.

Here is a closer photo of the lighthouse. I took this photo from the same place as the one above. Aaron, as my birthday gift, got me a great telephoto lens for my camera! I am so excited! Now I can take pictures of just about anything.

Our feet in the muck! It was the softest sand/mud I have ever felt. I told Aaron some ladies would probably pay good money at a spa to get covered with the muck we were walking through.

We made it! There was also a creepy house there. You can tell no one lives there but there was cereal on the table and a napkin. I wondered it they put it there to scare people. I didn't want to find out! I told Aaron I wasn't looking in the windows again because I didn't want to see a face looking back at me!

Later in the afternoon we decided to go to the movies. Going to the movies in the afternoon on a Tuesday is great! We were the only ones in the whole theater. We were able to laugh as loud as we wanted watching Baby Mama. It really liked the movie!

To end the day Aaron made me filet mignon, corn on the cob and shrimp skewers. Yummy! I had a great birthday this year. This year was the first time in two years that Aaron and I got to spend both our birthdays together. Deployment stinks like that! I can't wait to see what the 31st chapter of my life has in store for me.

Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend, I know Aaron and I did. Saturday, while heading to the new Cabela’s in Scarbourough, we heard on the radio that Don Mclean was playing at Discovery Park for the L.L. Bean Family Fun Weekend . Since the L.L. Bean store is only 10 miles down the road, we decided to check it out later that day.

Here I am posing with the giant boot outside the L.L. Bean flagship store in Freeport. No, I don't know this little girl. She was on the boot a lot!

Don Mclean singing away! I don't know a lot of his songs but we did get to hear American Pie, which was cool!

The Memorial Day parade in Brunswick was great. There were a lot more people there than I thought there would be. The parade was filled with Retired Vets, Navy Shipman, Marines, Soldier, school bands and random kids with decorated bikes. Aaron actually got to be a part of the parade (not because he wanted too!). He was escorting a General (1 star) all day. The General was a guest speaker at the ceremony held after the parade. It was a beautiful day of remembrance. I did great until they played taps. It gets me every time.

Aaron in an old WWII jeep. The guy driving was the owner of the jeep.

The sun was shining so bright that after the parade, Aaron and I decided to take the dogs (Yes, dogs. We are watching Garrett's dog, Mally) to a local state park. Bradbury Mountain State Park
has picnic areas, playgrounds and trail for hiking, biking, horseback riding and snowmobiles. We hiked to the summit. The best part about the park was that you could choose the trail difficulty. We hiked to the top on an easy trial (I am not in as good of shape as Aaron!) and came down a harder trail. It was a great 3 mile hike! Thanks Sara again for the great suggestion! Here are a few pics from our hike up the mountain.

Aaron with the doggies.

Boone and I reached the summit!

It was great weekend all around! Aaron was able to have almost the whole weekend off and the weather was beautiful to do some more exploring. Thanks to my friend Sara's suggestions, we have a whole list of fun things/places to try out this summer.

Cheesy Chicken Bake

I was writing this recipe on a recipe card and thought it would be a great one to share. I got it out of my 365 Easy Chicken Recipes cookbook. It is very good and very simple to make! I don't even like swiss cheese but love this recipe.

8 boneless, skinless chicken breast
8 slices Swiss cheese
1 (10 oz.) can of cream of chicken soup
1 (8 oz.) box of chicken stuffing mix

Flatten each chicken breast with a rolling pin and place in a greased 9x13" baking dish. Place cheese over chicken. Combine chicken soup and 1/2 C. water and pour over chicken. Prepare stuffing mix according to package directions and spread evenly over chicken. Bake, uncovered, at 325 degree for 1 hour.

Enjoy!

Random Rant

Why is Ted Kennedy's malignant brain tumor breaking national news? It seems harsh to say that I don't care but I don't care! And I doubt millions of people watching TV care either. There are A LOT more important things going on in the world.

The media is messed up! Their idea of important journalism makes me crazy sometimes! And now we are going to have to hear about him and his tumor, 24/7 for the next few days.

Ugh!