Land of the Free...

We just got home from another trip to Maine. Katie was at Camp Good News in Livermore Falls for the week so me, Becky, and Allison stayed to visit family and Ed stayed in MA to work. It was a nice week with good weather and lots of fun activities. I was ready to be home and back into the rountine though, you know how it goes.

Katie found out that she made the fall travel soccer team! YAY! She's on the A team this time which will hopefully provide her with more of a challenge! I'm also glad she'll be seeing her friends at practices before school starts. Hopefully spending time with other girls will lessen the anxiety of starting Middle School!

It's hard not to notice the news lately. All politics aside, I feel like what's happening in Lebannon and Israel is very sad. The Hezbollah strong hold is devasting. I think about the innocent people, going about their everyday lives having to watch the skies for incoming missiles. Mothers worrying over the safety of their tiny children or their grown children who've been called to fight. Homes and businesses have been lost. Men, women, and children have been killed. I don't understand all of the issues involved, I don't need to in order to be sympathetic. I'm sympathetic to all of the people who don't have any say about what's happening and yet are the most afftected. The whole thing makes me really thankful that I was born an American. I think I take that fact for granted most of the time. I don't know fear as I attend church as a Christian, or as I tuck my children in at night, or even as I sit outside on a beautiful summer day. Others, even as I write this are meeting in underground churches, or wondering if the night will bring more violence, or if a new missile will reach their town today. Some people think being an American means that we pay too much in taxes or that the price of gasoline is too high. Some people think it means to have too many illegal aliens taking too many benefits away from US citizens. Still others think being an American is all about taking and never giving back. To me it's simple, being an American means to be FREE. We live in the greatest country on earth - really.

I have been a very bad blogger lately! It's been over a week since my last post and I'm finally getting those pictures of the finished landscaping and the patio Ed made on here! Yesterday we had internet troubles...our wireless network was not responding and then this morning the internet wouldn't connect. I did remember that sometimes the modem box needs to be reset so that's what I did and VOILA! All better. So here's the landscaping...

We had a new paver walkway put in along with several shrubs and perennials. The clump birch is new also.
From this angle you can see a bit of the wall that was put in as well as the flowering crab apple tree. Overall, we're very happy with the way it turned out!
And here's the patio. It's about 10 x 10. In the corner, barely visible is a fire pit. We planted sod around the patio so we wouldn't have to contend with trying to grow grass while the kids were in and out of the pool. Ed did a good job, don't you think?

We've been swamped with company lately. I love having everyone here! First our sister in law and her three kids came with my mother in law. They were here for four days. Then my mother in law stayed and my brother in law, his wife, and two daughters, including our newest niece Jocelyn, came down and stayed three days. All told we had someone here for nine nights! We had a great time. Michayla, Tyler, and Kaleb were here for the first couple nights of Vacation Bible School at our church and Makenzie came to the last night. Fun. I think my favorite thing we did was Magic Wings, a 8000 square foot butterfly conservatory with over 4000 butterflies flying freely around you. It was gorgeous! The plants were beautiful and tropical feeling and the butterflies were so large and unique! My mother in law said she thought heaven must be a little like that place. I could've sat all day and just enjoyed the scenery!

I'm doing laundry as we speak for our trip to Maine. Katie is going to camp all next week so Becky, Ally, and I are going to stay with family. No sense in making the trip twice, once to drop her off and once to pick her up. It's not a difficult drive but it does get a little long and boring. Boring is good I guess. It'll be nice to see friends and family, I'm looking forward to it.

How about Rock Star Supernova? I loved Rockstar INXS last summer so naturally I'm hooked on this season. I think goody two shoes Dana needs to go away. In my opinion, she ain't got the stuff to lead a band with the likes of Tommy Lee! I'm liking Storm and Toby. I also like the girl who sang first on Tuesday although I don't remember her name. She came on strong the very first week. Some predict a woman will win - - time will tell.

LOST isn't premiering until Oct. 4! Then it will run for 8 weeks and be off until February sometime! What's up with that!? That does not make me happy!

The girls and I went to see a theater production of James and the Giant Peach yesterday! It was really well done! Allison liked most of it, until one of the characters ran toward the audience. Then she kept saying, "I want to leave this place!" She managed to stick it out and we all had a nice time.

We are loving our swimming pool. The weather has been so hot! We swim for a while then get out to have ice cream cones. I tell you, we barely notice the heat! Some days the girls put their bathing suits on first thing and have them on all day! Allison is swimming all around the pool with her bubble on now. And I've noticed a major improvement in Becky's confidence level! Katie spends most of her time doing somersaults or handstands! I think she's under the water more than she's above it.

I think I'm feeling an ice cream cone break coming on now!...Gotta go.

I'm not sure if this sign is supposed to make us feel safe or terrified...

On the way out of the Berkshire mountains the grade is steadily downhill for several miles and a runaway truck ramp is sometimes necessary. Hmmm...I hope I never see a runaway truck!

Fourth of July weekend Ed worked on this patio. It's finished now and looks terrific. I'll post pics of that later. It was more time consuming to prepare the site than to actually lay the patio. Isn't he so clever?

We've had a house full of family since Saturday. It's been fun. Six kids and four adults. We've done six flags (thank goodness we bought season passes), a scenic train ride, a picnic at the waterfall, and some time at a playground, and of course swimming in the pool. We also have Vacation Bible School in the evening which was super fun last night and me and the kiddos are looking forward to going tonight. The music is really upbeat with lots of hand motions. Very fun.

These guys leave tomorrow and on Friday Ed's brother Keith and his family will be here for the weekend. I can't wait to see little Jocelyn again, I'm sure she's changed so much already. I think we're going to catch a baseball game while their here. And we'll definitely do some letterboxing.

Summer is zooming by; why doesn't winter zoom by as quickly? I'm looking forward to the hot humid weather in the forecast...THAT'S how I like my summers. And I like my winters snowy! And spring, I like...actually, spring is my least favorite season, although I do love the beautiful flowers blooming everywhere. And fall should be filled with brilliantly colored leaves, cool crisp days, and pumpkins and mums on the front porch.

Cook Kids

Here's the whole clan of Cook children. Michayla is the oldest at 12 and the tallest. She is now taller than me (like that's a big accomplishment). Then Katie 11, Tyler 9, Rebecca 7, Makenzie 7, Kaleb 6, Allison 3, and little Jocelyn who as of this post is 11 days old. Check out the tiny foot sticking out of the blanket.

For anyone interested in seeing what my little brother is up to go to www.wgme.com/home/choose.html Then scroll down to the "Where's Amy" . Look for the "Tern Turnaround" story and click on WMV. You'll see the video of the island and the project and Robby. Very cool. He's been working at Stratton Island in Maine for a long time. He's very knowledgeable about birds and really wildlife in general. His thing is definitely birds though. Even when we were little I remember weekend afternoons watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I think it's pretty great that he is doing what he loves. He really is an expert in his field with even college professors seeking his knowledge about different things. Now we just need to him to get married while at least one of my girls is young enough to be a flower girl! I guess he kind of needs a girlfriend first, eh?

Soccer tryouts went well. There's two more tryout times later in July. We'll see if she makes the team. Even if she doesn't make travel there's the house league and an intramural league at the middle school. Both Katie and Becky will start piano lessons the first week in August. A very talented woman at our church gives lessons at her home. I'm so excited. Most piano teachers around here charge $25 per lesson, our teacher charges about half that!

We're hanging out at home mostly this weekend. Tuesday morning we'll head to the parade and then that night we are going to a baseball game and fireworks. In Maine every year we went to the parade in Bath. We always ran into plenty of people we knew and the kids came home with tons of candy. Then we went to Freeport for a nice fireworks display. Usually we went with family and brought snacks and sparklers. Time for new traditions. I'm looking forward to the ball game. I hope Allison is at least a little interested in it.

Happy Fourth of July!