31 posts tagged “daily”

I posted some of the images from our Chicago trip in a slide show you can view here
These are just Chicago and I left out Milwaukee because there was some great architectural photography there that I want to put into a separate show.  The show has music so adjust your volume accordingly!  Of course the pictures may not mean much without me telling you what they all are but my photo album will have all of that at some point

In any case enjoy!

Cool little site where you can type your name in and see when it was most popular in history:

http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager

 

Turns out my name was most popular in the 60's with a ranking of 767 and in the 20's with a ranking in the 300's... when was your name popular?

 

Not long after my parents were married they purchased a dining room table, this was 41 years ago now.  Growing up this was our dining room table, our game table, our coloring table, our sitting and visiting table, our everything table.  We didn't really have a desk in the house til I was much older so this table served as the only flat surface where things got done.  I have ALOT of memories with this table: meals, games, visiting with family, talking to my mom....

My mother has hung onto this table and brought it to Maine with her when she moved.  But the family has gotten larger.  Kim has gotten married and had 2 kids, I have Matt and sometimes Jen brings a date to dinners or family events.  It was just this past easter when I was bringing Matt and  Jen was bringing a date that we convinced my mom it was time for a new table - there was just no way for all of us to sit at a table that only seats 6 comfortably.  She was not loving the idea as my mom likes to hang onto things - but I had a perfectly good hardwood table in my basement that seats 12 just looking for a home - so we switched!  Now I have the dining room table of our childhood and she has a whole new table to make  years of memories with.  We all sit much more comfortably at meal times and we can even have more than just the 10 people that we usually have when we are full up!

As for me, well I have been working hard to refinish the table.   It takes a while to get 41 years of poly and shellac off of a pine table but I was able to get it done for the top and the fold down side pieces.  I decided to paint the bottom white.  The reason was partly because shanding down all those knoks and crannies would take another weekend (or two) and I didn't have that kind of time to spare and partly because I was interested in seeing if I liked that country look of painted bottoms and plain tops.  I am going to treat the exposed wood with tung oil over the next week or so but for now it looks like this.  Its not attached, I just set the wood on top of the legs.

 

 

I am excited to have the table, excited that I have something in my house that has all of those memories attached to it and looking forward to creating more memories on that table with family!

In a day and age where everything is NEW NEW NEW and BUY BUY BUY I think its important that we hold onto things that meant something to us, that we find new uses for older pieces and that we realize that NEW doesn't always mean BETTER.

 

 

Every year when my mothers sister comes up from CT with her kids and grandkids we take one night and go downtown to the rides.  The rides in OOB are filled with people on vacation, tons of kids running and screaming and long lines. I go every year to take pictures.  This year Matt went with me so he could experience the full drama of it - and of course we ate every bit of junk food imaginable!

The photographic focus was on the kids.  Riley is still to small for most of the big kid rides so we started with the frog hopper.  Riley's friend Molly tried to help her up, but since they are both the same size it didn't work - but it was nice she helped

 

These girls ROCKED frog hopper and all of the ohter kiddy rides, they weren't that scary but made for cute pictures

 

 

The hair was all over the place after a few go rounds

 

 

Hailey on the other hand could ride the big rides and

She was

 

super

 

EXCITED!

 

 

Hailey LOVES the rides and rode on everything. She rode the huge swings all by herself, I was a nervous wreck and almost asked them to stop so I could get her off, but she rode it and had a permanent grin on the whole time  - she just loved them.

Here she is riding the "roller coaster" - I think she should be hanging on - and why does backlighting vex me so??

 

My mother and her sister.  They are going on a 1 month tour of Ireland this fall.  I wonder if they are coming back mainly because I think they will get lost, my mother says she may choose not to come back

There was a slide that Riley loved so much she made my mother go on it with her... good thing my mother is spry - they both seem to love it... strange

 

You can view pictures here here!!

Matty and I are going away for weekend

In my new living room

This first one took 6 hours hopefully the rest goes quickly