You Know You are From New Hampshire When...

This was just too good to pass up! Ready for a laugh or two? Come on, all you New Englanders, you know it is true!!!

You Know You are from New Hampshire When:

Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway. -I'll admit that I have been the one on the tractor!

You measure distance in hours. -See my previous post...

You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.

You drive at 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events or church.

You think of the major food groups as venison, cider, fish, and berries.

You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend/wife knows how to use them. -Uh-huh...I carry jumper cables AND know how to use them!

You know all four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction. (and maybe a 5th -- mud!) (Or -- tourist, foliage, skiing and mud) -Why does tourist season always seem to last twice as long as any of the others???

You buy your Christmas presents at the feed and grain store. -Hey, it makes me happy!

You know what cow-tipping is.

"Down South" to you means Boston. -so true.

You can actually pronounce "Kancamagus" and know what it is. -oh, yeah.

You know what a bubbler is. -Who doesn't?

Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new machine shed.

You can recognize someone from Massachusetts from their driving. My 16 year-old brother has an affectionate name for these kind of drivers... the two year old now repeats the same word. Good thing he has absolutely no idea what it means....I hope.

You only know three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup. -So very true.

Your snow blower gets stuck on the roof. -Come on, we know you've all done it!

You find 0 degrees a little chilly. -Just a little bit, but not much.

Silly, I know. But good for a laugh!

Freeedooommm!

Last night was my last and final night of freedom over winter break. So, what better thing to do than celebrate? My mom and I decided at 6:15 that we wanted to go out and catch a movie. Great idea right? Well, not exactly if the only show time was 7 p.m. and the theater is a 40 minute drive from your house. What can I say, we live in the boonies....

Nevertheless, we made good time; even dropped off a friend and put gas in the car...good thing too or we never would have made it all the way up there, never mind back. We pulled into the parking lot at exactly 7 p.m. and were in the theater by 7:05 p.m. Remember that part I told you about us living in the boonies??? That also equals the fact that we do not wait in line for much except maybe when you try to grab a cup of coffee at the only coffee shop in town, then you may have a problem, but hey, we take what we can get. And because we live in the boonies there were only two other people in the theater and the movie started 10 minutes late. Just a few of the perks folks, thought you might want to know what you are missing out on! Anyhow, I digress...

This was the movie we saw:


Leap Year. It was quite good. Granted it was something my 16 year-old brother will never want to see...never as in never ever, but my mom and I thought it was quite good. We laughed through the entire movie (well, us and the two other people in the entire theater, but that is certainly beside the point...) The plot was well written, the twists were slightly more unpredictable than I imagined, and the humor was funny and surprisingly appropriate.

So, if you're looking for something to eat up a couple hours of your time, (oh, wait, better tack on a couple hours for travel time if you live in the boonies like me!) then go check it out.

Farewell to my days of lying on the couch with nothing better to do and the days of having time to drive forever and a decade just to see a movie that was good, but not that good! Farewell my love. I do not know when I will see you again....

The Prince and the Pea(s)

Here is a funny New England snow day story for you all! We have been blanketed in about 8 inches of snow between last night and this morning with more falling throughout the day. What better thing to do than tackle those projects that are always put off because there is something better to do. Well, today there was nothing better to do and the refrigerator has needed cleaning for weeks, er, um, maybe months, but shhh, don't tell anyone. It will be our little secret....

I was cleaning out the fridge of all of our leftover food from the last week and came across a Tupperware container with a few scant pieces of pineapple left, so naturally I asked Trey (the ever-hungry two year old) if he wanted a snack. He said he did and sat up to the table to enjoy a before lunch snack.

Now, Trey's outfit is important to discuss before we go any farther in this retold fairytale. This morning Trey picked out a pair of jeans and a Red Sox shirt to wear today. No problem. Perfect. Well, it was until he found his bathing suit and decided to dress himself in that OVER his clothes. This is no regular bathing suit, wait....a photo is worth a thousand words, is it not?


Not only does he have his flotation bathing suit on over his clothes, but he also put it on backwards. Gotta love good old Yankee ingenuity.

I turned my back for a few minutes. Just to finish washing out the produce drawer and when I turned around...well, let's just say that Trey made me laugh, yet again. He had completely discarded the pineapple for the Tupperware full of peas from our dinner two nights ago. He was eating them by the fistful....in his bathing suit...which was over his clothes. It was just too much.



I asked Trey what he was doing...this was the response I got:



After we finished laughing, I noticed that Trey had accidentally spilled some of his snack of peas on the floor and I asked him to pick them up. I turned around the dry the before mentioned produce drawer and when I turned back around:



Yup. He was licking them off of the floor. One at a time. Oh boy. Well, I guess it was a healthy snack!

My Crazy Weekend

I am in charge this weekend. In charge of the dogs. I am dog-sitting for some good friends of mine while they are out of town for the weekend. Wanna meet 'em? Um, the dogs, that is!

This is Max. He wears me out. He is a black lab. 'Nuf said.




This is Dozer. A real sweetheart. I think he thought that it would be too much work to open his eyes for me to take his picture.



And last, but certainly not least...This is Foster. He sleeps under the covers with me. Come on, how you say "no" to that face? :)



There are also two birds that are photographically unaccounted for. They talk to me all the time. One calls me "pretty girl;" flattering and bizarre all at the same time!

I'm hoping for a fairly quiet weekend with no blips in the radar, but as always I'm sure it will be an adventure! Stay tuned....one never knows what may happen in New England in the middle of winter with three dogs and two talking birds!

The Red Tent

Being a college student does not leave a lot of wiggle room for pleasure reading; this I have come to understand. After reading for classes, assignments, and homework, the last thing you want to do is pick up another piece of reading material, pleasurable or not. So, over winter break I endeavored to read some books just for myself and the one I just finished was phenomenal.



It is entitled The Red Tent and it was written by Anita Diamant. A good friend of mine recommended it to me and suggested I read it over winter break and I am so glad I did.

It is a first-person narrative which tells the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph, and a talented midwife. The book's title refers to the tent in which women of Jacob's tribe must, according to the ancient law, take refuge while menstruating or giving birth, and in which they find mutual support and encouragement from their mothers, sisters and aunts.

This fictional interpretation of history was very well written and provided a good story. I just might read for fun a little more often.

A Milestone

So, it is official. Micah has had his first haircut. He is a baby no more. He was really good about it and now looks like quite the little man. Enjoy the photos, our baby is growing up!

The "before" shot:



The first snip:



The work in progress shot:



The "I'm really not very sure about this" shot:



The finished product, "I'm a big boy now" shot:



Poor kid, he looks like he was shakin' in his boots. It really was not that traumatic! I guess there has to be a first time for everything, right?

Uh, I Think I Would Pick the Cow

I watched a PBS special the other night titled, "The Standard of Perfection: Show Cattle." It was all about Maine beef and dairy farmers, so naturally my curiosity was peaked. The documentary explored the world of the farmers who show their cattle, concentrating on the Fryeburg Fair. There was one man who has a dairy farm over in Shapleigh, Maine who made a comment that just has to be shared:

"There's pretty women and there's pretty cows, but which one would you rather take home?"

Hmm... Interesting. I may need to think about that one.

Oh, for the record, the farmer was insinuating that every respectable New England farmer would pick the pretty cow over the pretty woman. Interesting. 'Nuf said.