Another Quote of the Day

Compliments of the eldest:

When chatting with Nana last night, she was asked what she wanted for her birthday. One of her responses was make up. 

Dad: "I don't know, honey. Mumma, what's you're take on makeup?"

Me: "I think she should be 14."

Madie: "I have a friend that has makeup!"

Dad: "Yes, but..."

Me: "At least, eye makeup. If you want something like lipgloss when you're 10 or 12 or something, that's fine."

And here it is:

Madie: (while rolling her eyes and flopping back onto the couch) "Yeah, I mean, lip gloss and some lipstick, at least."

Oh. My. Woooooorrrrrrrd.

And here's a quote of the day from Mr. Finn:

"Are we gonna go see Nana and Papa?"

"Yes, but not today."

"I don't want to see any walruses."

"...okay."

Mademoiselle Madeleine

While we await the successful posting of Finn's birthday, here's a little bit about the Lady Fi.

This girl cracks me up. I remember talking with Mike when she was 2-3 about her lack of imagination. She didn't play well by herself at all. And if I ever suggested a game of make believe--"Let's pretend the couch is a boat!"--she would just stare at me. "But it's not. It's a couch." 

Well, that little kid is totally gone. Penetre l'actrice! She and Finn play dog and owner. The dog's name is Custard, the name given him by Mademoiselle Madeleine. Sometimes she is Rosetta, who I think is a cat. 

She asked me once if Santa lived in a "striped chocolate house" (an old yellow Tudor-style house on Mt. Desert Street). I told her I didn't think he lived in that particular one, but I bet he lives in one similar. And if he doesn't, he should.

One of her favorite activities is dressing up. She loves to take her friends downstairs and break out the capes and dresses. She and the girl across the street like to play "princess sisters." Madie is often a girl named Amelia. I don't know where she comes up with all her names, but they're good. I wish we had more versatile dressups--I feel like with a cape or a hat or gloves or something you can be a lot of things, but with a dress she's pretty much just a princess. 

I'll often catch her mumbling to herself, which inevitably means she's playing something out in her head. This particular trait has now rubbed off on Finnegan, which I think is hilarious. 

Morning Walk

I've recently resolved--truly--to start running regularly. I have let half of this year go by in a glory of culinary bacon exploits, but have done little in the way of working out, averaging only a couple of workouts a week. And bacon, being strictly a temporary blessing of mortality, is really only good if I am around to enjoy it.

Bacon-wrapped grilled cheese, there is only one you. Unless I make another.

So this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I went back to the gym. I have some sort of shoulder problem--as of now it's undiagnosed officially, but I think it's my rotator cuff--so I have only been walking instead of weightlifting. A big reason I haven't been working out regularly this spring is that with the nice weather I don't want to go to the gym if I'm not going to lift--but going on a walk with the kids is to walk at kid speed. I finally sucked it up and admitted that a walk on an indoor track was worth a million outdoor walks that didn't happen, in terms of exercise.

But here's the thing: I give Mike a hard time about buying expensive sporting equipment and not using it. (To be fair, he usually does, but there are times when I have not felt he's gotten our money's worth from something.) But earlier this winter, I was shoe shopping and told Mike I'd like to get into running--especially with all the trails and paths on the island. I don't know that I'll ever do a marathon or anything, but I'd like to run around this island of ours. He convinced me to buy a pair of nice trail-running shoes that were quite a bit more expensive than the pair of sneakers I was looking at.

I've owned those shoes for six months now. As of last week, I'd run in them once. So Thursday evening, after the kids went to bed and I'd eaten a dinner of hot dogs, cake, and ice cream (Finn's birthday--getting the pictures up to post later), I ran (kind of) a mile. It was torturous, but I knew it'd get less so. Then Friday morning I ran again--maybe a mile and a half--which is definitely the longest I've ever run. (Hey, I was a sprinter, okay.) This morning I am sore, and thankful for the first time EVER that I live in a one-story house.

I did manage to hobble down the steps of the porch to take Elvis on a walk. I even walked at a decent pace. I did the loop of Degregoire Park, right by our property. The far end of that loop goes along a scrambley cliff-side. When I reached that end I couldn't help but stop. The tide was right up high, so I could only scramble down a couple of feet or so, but I found a good rock to sit on and pick the rocks out of my shoes and watch a lobster boat churn past, close enough to wave to the lobsterman working the gears on back. It made me curse leaving my phone at home--I wanted a picture to share the moment with you all. But I quickly rescinded the thought. I sat another minute, then Elvis and I climbed back up to the road and kept going. 

You see, no picture, not even one of Mike's, will really get it through to the viewers what he is experiencing unless they've experienced it themselves. I love to look at photos, I love to share my own, but this was a morning that no photo could do justice. No photo would share the scent of the lilacs I passed on my way down or the shore roses I literally stopped and smelled on my way back. No photo would share the perfect temperature or the salty breeze. No photo would share the companionship I feel with my parents, my Grammy Alexa, or every other Mainer I see enjoying the Maine State Pastime on a morning like this. Even Elvis was perfect--he walked off-leash most of the way, and we race the last stretch before the Sand Point Road, which can be "busy." That's why I want to run. It's my gateway sport to so much more; more smells and sights and sounds and feelings than I get from the gym, and in less time than I get walking.

This is one of Mike's. And just like that shot of the back-wrapped grilled cheese, you have no idea what the experience was like unless you've repelled to the bottom of a cliff and climbed back out yourself. Don't you want that?!

So raise your bowls of bacon and say it with me: here's to being a little more adventurous and a little more like Mike.

Two Walks in Pictures

The Jesup Path (May)

The Hemlock Trail (same walk)

Great Head Trail

Spring Quest

Three or four weeks ago Madie came home and did something I thought at the time was a miracle: went to the bathroom, took less than 30 minutes in there, came out and EMPTIED HER BACKPACK. All without being reminded. It turned out it was less of a miracle and more of a desire. She ran up to me with a flyer she had been given at school from the community college with the title, "Spring Quest" printed across the top. 

"I really want to do this," she said as she brought it to me. I was surprised she was so proactive about it. She generally isn't that way even about things she's interested in. I looked through it and told her I'd talk to Dad about it. 

Spring Quest is a program run by the (very) small elementary education majors at College of the Atlantic here in Bar Harbor. There were four of them this year. It runs for the last week of May as an after-school program. We decided to send Madie, with the only concern being the possibility she'd be grumpy when she got home at 5:30. We told her she would have to go to bed early every night that week to make up for it. She wasn't thrilled about that, but she was excited to go. 

Day 1: They started out with a bang! They visited the college's touch-tank to learn about all sorts of sea creatures. They talked about whales, and measured the distance between two buildings in "Minke whale" lengths (17 ft.). They talked about similarities between humans and whales, how baleen whales eat, and passed around a piece of baleen and krill. They even put together a baby Minke whale skeleton! She still brings that up.

Day 2: This was the "wonders of the land" day. They made garden wraps for a snack. They talked about the parts of plants involved in their snacks and that all of the vegetables started out as seeds. Then they dissected a bean seed and drew the different parts of them. They planted mini gardens to bring home. 

Day 3: Thursday they focused on wonders of the sky--and were blessed with a thunderstorm to accompany them! Really! They started out with bird and bat foods for snack. They had fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and cheddar bunnies. (Hahaha! I love that one.) They talked about owls and the rodents they eat. They looked at owl pellets (lucky them). They talked about how high up the sky goes and whether they can touch it or not. They talked about how rain is formed and the common names of clouds.

Day 4: The last day of Spring Quest. This was the day they focused on how humans impact the natural environment. They talked about what a landscape would look like if there were no humans in it. They went on a scavenger hunt to look at things around campus people are doing to lower their impact on the environment (solar panels, composting, electric cars, etc.) They used peanut butter chocolate chip cookies to talk about plants and animals they really like and want to preserve and different ways to do that. (This is my kind of lesson!)

All in all, I think it was a very positive experience for Miss Madie. She enjoyed her teachers and the other kids, and she loves hands-on things like this. I hope her other extra-curricular activities will be as enjoyable for her as this first one has.

Maine is home

Hiking with Spike, scoping out my Eagle Project, 16 years old

When Mallory and I were dating, I specifically remember dismissing the idea of living in Maine. I suppose that was mostly based on the fact that I couldn't imagine living in a place like Maine because it seemed so foreign to me. I was raised in a very vibrant area of California where the innovation of Silicon Valley was pulling the world and telling them where to go. Recreation, people, terrain, climate, cultures, and foods were all very diverse and at your finger tips. Despite the many negative things people may say about California, there are a lot of positives about the place. I don't really want to make this a California vs. Maine type of thing, but I draw from my experience from California because that's what I have to compare my Maine experience to.

Part of me longs to return to California. There are a lot of things that I miss about that place. Some of those things include giving my kids similar experiences that I had when I was growing up. A few things that come to mind is being in a strong church community (but outside of the Utah bubbles), growing up among diverse cultures, being close to the outdoors, have the ability to play and roam as a kid, having access to vibrant cities and museums, and have a temple nearby. There was always a pride with being from California, one that is difficult to describe. We are used to setting trends and making waves in entertainment, technology, politics, and culture.

Maine pride is much different. It's more of a blue collar, we-know-we-are-the-underdog type of pride. For example, recently I was returning from a California business trip. I was sitting in the Reagan National Airport waiting for my connecting flight to Bangor which had already been delayed an extra hour up to this point. When we were asked to board, we had to board a bus, which would drive us to some remote corner of the tarmac. The Mainers in the bus began cracking jokes about how they couldn't find the plane to Maine, and that when they did find it, it would be a prop plane from WWII. It was quite comical to observe, because everyone was very jovial about it and was okay with it. It's like they expected to board the worst plane on the tarmac, which may make it to Bangor, or it may not. It's kind of a sick sense of humor, but funny nonetheless. After I heard people saying that, I turned the table on myself. If I was in a bus full of Californians heading to an already delayed flight, what would the voice of the people be saying on that bus? Probably nothing cheerful. Most likely nothing at all because everyone would be on their smartphone to trick their minds into thinking they were anywhere else except on a bus about to board a plane. So I guess I really prefer the underdog mentality, although I'm still one to play my California pride card from time to time.

Madie and Finn hold Petranella for the first time

I was really worried about what church life would be like in Maine. It's extremely remote, and the nearest temple is a five hour drive. Was the Branch going to have young families? Were our kids going to have friends at church? The answer is yes and yes. I was pleasantly surprised with the young families, kids, and community that I found here in the Ellsworth Branch. Granted, the Branch just north of us doesn't have any youth at all, and maybe a handful of kids. But we have been supremely blessed to have young families moving in recently. Our primary is quite large. The nursery alone is bursting with young boys Finns age. The one challenge is the temple. It's only five hours away, but at the same time, it's five hours away! With young kids and no immediate family nearby to watch them, it's quite a challenge to go. We are still trying to figure this one out. Overall, the Branch has a very special and welcoming spirit. I love how real the people are.

No matter where you live or where you plan on moving to, you are going to hear people saying "Oh, you don't want to live there, their school is no good. You need to live in this neighborhood." We heard that in Livermore, we heard it here in Maine as well. I guess the big difference between the two is we could actually afford to live where the supposedly 'good school' was and it didn't involve signing up for a charter school 18 months in advance. Madie will be learning the violin next year with her class, she will be learning French in 3rd grade, and benefits from small class sizes to get the personal attention she needs. The learning environment here is already leaps and bounds ahead of what I grew up with.

Snowboarding Alpine Meadows, 16 years old

As I mentioned above, California is a place of very diverse recreation. Growing up, I remember this one weekend when I went snowboarding on a Friday, and then going surfing the very next day...just because I could! I grew up camping in the redwoods, backpacking the sierras, snowboarding Lake Tahoe, and surfing in Santa Cruz. It is the birthplace of many more outdoor trends and activities, even the mecca of some. You literally have everything at your fingertips. Because California is the mecca for a lot of these activities, it can be so crowded. Trying to reserve a campsite in Yosemite for a night this summer didn't happen because it filled up in a matter of minutes. That's how competitive it is. Maine has a lot of outdoor activities to offer. On our island alone, you can hike, rock climb, ocean kayak, canoe, cycle, swim, surf, mountain bike, lay at the beach, go whale watching, or go fishing. This doesn't even touch on the winter activities. I remember last summer we went to this lake in Acadia that is not well known at all. I was sitting there, enjoying the beach with the family and thinking to myself "If this was California, we wouldn't be able to find a parking spot, and even if we could, we probably wouldn't be able to find a place to lay down a beach blanket." Although Maine may not have the highest mountain, the biggest trees, or the steepest walls, the recreational opportunities in Maine are real, and at our fingertips.

Madie and Finn at Sand Beach, summer 2014

The other day I was at a birthday party for one of Madie's friends and I met a man from Ireland. He had been here for 15+ years and only had a slight hint of an accent. I asked him if he missed Ireland or had any desire to return. He said yes, he missed a lot of things about it. But he also admitted that if he did return he wouldn't be able to capture the things he missed. His home had changed too much since he left. I guess I feel the same way. All the things that I love and miss about California are near and dear to me. But moving back there won't help me realize those things, and there's certainly no guarantee that my kids will see those things either. I can't give if it's not received.

Just last week during fast and testimony meeting, one of our summer residents bore a testimony that has been replaying in my head all week. They live in Utah most of the year, but she said when they come to Maine in the summer, "I feel that I can be the person I want to be." I couldn't agree more. I don't know what it is about this place, but there seems to be less pressure to be something you're not.

Jordan Pond, Atlantic, and beyond.

I don't have a crystal ball and I have no idea how long we will live in Maine, but I can say we will enjoy the simple life. Winters are long, and wear me down. Our nearest immediate family member is in Utah, which makes reunions strenuous. But when I think about the drought issues, violent protests, and tornadoes all around the country, I count my blessings and am grateful for a safe and fun place to weather the storm and raise my family.

Mothers Day Highlights

Mother's Day is supposed to be a perfectly relaxing day for Mom, filled with sleeping in, specially requested meals prepared and served by Dad, and endless pampering. At least, that's what we are told is supposed to happen on this day. Most of these rarely come to fruition, unfortunately. On Saturday night, I got out of bed somewhere between 8-10 times to tend a coughing Finn, and a teething Nella. Due to a slough of general, regional, and stake conferences this spring, fast Sunday was pushed to Mother's Day. Due to my condition of getting 'hangry' (hungry & angry), I avoid being near food while I'm fasting. Despite the rough start, the day actually turned out very well. 

Church was very nice. An individual made cheese cutting boards for all the mothers in the congregation after Sacrament Meeting. It was a very nice one, actually. After church, we headed home and the kids all had quiet time, which means Mal got a nap. After a substantial nap and quiet time for everyone, we headed out on a hike to Great Head, near Sand Beach. When we got home, we ate the requested meal: polenta & meat balls covered in marinara sauce. We topped that off with strawberry clouds, which are a cheesecake-tasting dessert. The cloud credit goes to Mal, who made them the night before. They were amazing. Why don't we have those more often? Madie is so funny because she is very skeptical about new foods. But we have been introducing a few new things to her lately, like dough boys. She is slowly learning that it's fun to try new things (hopefully).

This little man wore a tie all through church, and for the first time. He got a lot of compliments.

Getting put into the wrap. Little Nella loves being outside.

That tie came off quickly when it was business time. Our kids take scrambling very seriously.

We had to walk across Sand Beach to get there, of course. Tough life.

The trail has superb ocean views.