Lori's life... 3 boys and a blog!

We're baaaaack....

As Benjamin noted this morning... "Five days sure go by fast!"

We left Montreal this morning around 10, and made it home at about 5:15. We had a couple of stops along the way, once for lunch and once to check out an old car "museum" that we happened upon on the Kangamangus highway. Leave it to Arthur to find these things, I swear.... ;) Anyway, it was a good trip home, highlighted by the beautiful views as we drove through the White Mountains. We're thinking that we need to plan a camping trip there for later on this summer so that we can check out Clark's Trading Post and Railway Museum as well as Six Gun City. There's a water park up that way that looks like a great time too.... so we'll have to look into it more and get something set up. The boys would love it, I'm sure... all 4 of them! ;)

Backtracking a bit to Friday, I need to share some photos of our trip to Exporail, the train museum. However, since I am once again fading fast, it will have to wait until tomorrow, I'm afraid.... I do have the photos uploading on facebook right now, though... working on Friday's at the moment. I haven't put any captions on them yet, but they will hopefully be on there at least. I'm actually trying for the 3rd time, since the first 2 times didn't work... ugh. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Back tomorrow after I drop the boys off at rec camp! Woohoo... first day!

Montreal continued.... Titanic, TRAFFIC and the train museum

So far, the weather in Montreal has been everything that Maine weather hasn't been recently... sunny and hot. It's been a real treat except for the humidity, especially when the air conditioning in the van doesn't work. Ugh. Not complaining... just sayin'. I will not complain about the heat ANYTIME soon after the winter we had and the crappy spring as well.

Yesterday was a looooong day. The Boy Singers were scheduled to go to a Titanic exhibit at the Eaton Center in Montreal (5 story mall with the lowest 2 floors underground). When we got the itinerary a couple of weeks ago, we decided to go to the exhibit as well, since we knew the boys would enjoy it. I bought tickets online ahead of time, so all we had to do was pick them up at the box office. Nice. Unfortunately, there were no cameras or videos allowed in the exhibit, but it was a great experience. They had all kinds of artifacts on display from the actual wreckage... very cool. Here are a couple of pictures outside the exhibit even though we couldn't take them inside.

A rare photo where Noah was actually standing next to AJ without complaining LOL!

After the exhibit, we spent some time exploring the mall.... of course Noah and Benjamin found a candy store.... but we escaped with only a gumball!

Benjamin checking out the glass elevator, which totally fascinated him ... Noah jumped into the photo to show off his french fries. :P

Walking back to the parking lot.... gorgeous old (and new) buildings!

Our next intended stop was at a place called the Labyrinthe.... but since we stayed at the mall later than the boys, we couldn't follow them to it.... AND we didn't have a street address for it, so the GPS really wasn't helpful. We drove around for nearly an hour trying to figure it out (and you know of course that Arthur (being a man) didn't want to stop and ask for directions. I finally convinced him to find a post office or police station, so we plugged that into the GPS and were directed to a nearby post office... but unfortunately we couldn't find it even with help LOL. FINALLY we found a hotel that I went into... the woman behind the desk gave me a map and directed us to the place we wanted. Ironic that it was literally FIVE MINUTES from where we started, yet we drove around for an HOUR looking for it. Ugh!

The Labyrinthe didn't allow photos either... it's a huge maze built inside a shed down near the waterfront. Here's a picture of the sign at least...

Here's the website in case you're interested... it was a pretty cool place, but very frustrating after being stuck in it for a while.. especially when it's hot and humid (oops... sorry. Didn't mean to rub it in, oh people from the state of Maine where it rains all summer, apparently.

http://www.labyrintheduhangar16.com/en/index.html

We left there at 4:30ish and intended to go to the concert last night, which started at 7. We WOULD have had plenty of time if it hadn't been for THIS...

MAJOR traffic (and apparently it wasn't any better earlier, so it's not that we left too late...), so we ended up getting back to the hotel just in time to change and head out for the evening concerts. Lovely...

I'm fading fast here... need to go to bed. I'll post today's photos tomorrow.... awesome time at the train museum for ALL of the boys. ;)

Montreal.... here we are!

Well, we made it... we're in Montreal! (Technically, we're in Laval... but close enough). Anyway, we got on the road this morning about 8:40ish and arrived at about 3:20pm... not bad considering a couple of mix ups following the GPS we borrowed from my friend Sheila. It's a little tricky driving around here when you can't read the language and it sometimes takes the GPS a minute to catch up to where you are.

Here's the gang getting ready and packing up the bus... the cartons are wardrobe boxes holding all of the uniforms.

Our van was packed pretty much to capacity as well....

We stopped at a "scenic viewpoint" in Vermont to have a quick photo op and a stretch for the legs. What a joke... who puts a freakin' line of TREES in front of a scenic view?? Oh well, we got the stretch. The view? Not so much. ;)

The border crossing really wasn't bad at all! :) No doubt the return trip will be a bit more involved, but this one was easy. Here's a view just over the border.

I took a few pictures from the van along the way... probably not very clear, but we'll give it a shot. It was hard to tell from the screen on the camera..... so I'll apologize in advance for them not being all that great LOL. This first one was *supposed* to be a picture of the mountains we could see in the distance as we approached the city of Montreal. I'm guessing that we still had about an hour to go here....

Farms, farms and more farms... I was honestly surprised by just how many of them there are in Canada! Here's one of the many.... again, not a great pic. Sorry...

We stopped briefly for some lunch at McDonald's...

Here's Noah pointing out the differnce between american and Canadian french fries... the little maple leaf on the package. He thought it was quite cool!

Going over the bridge towards Montreal... crossing the St. Lawrence.

Here we are at hotel.... wow. It's HOT here. Not that I'm complaining!

The boys on the bus didn't arrive until after 4, so we took Noah and Benjamin to the pool while we were waiting and gave them some downtime. Once the whole group arrived, we headed out for dinner shortly afterwards.... and once we found it, it was a great place. Not cheap, but reasonable considering the amount of food they gave us! I had a delicious house salad with grilled chicken... yum. :)

After dinner, much of the group was swimming.... CRAZY loud and busy in there, as opposed to how it was earlier when we were the only ones in the place!

OK, that's it for tonight... I'm wiped. Only 4 hours of sleep last night because I was up late packing and still got up to go to the gym early..... figured I could sleep in the car. Only problem? I didn't really sleep in the car. Too much to see!

One more day 'til Montreal!

We're getting ready to head out for our Boy Singers of Maine tour in Montreal on Wednesday morning... the whole family is going and we're very excited about it!
So.... I'm busy, busy, busy.... but feeling guilty, guilty, guilty about not blogging. Here it is June 22nd... where did the month go??? Seriously! I figured that since SO much time has gone by, I'd do a quick recap (with photos of course!) I 'last left off on the 31st of May, so we'll start with June 1st. No doubt I will forgot some stuff, but I'll do my best....

JUNE 3rd: Trip to Boston via the Downeaster with my sixth graders... what a great day! Beautiful weather and well behaved students... what more could we ask for?? Here's a picture of me taking a picture of one of my students... not putting up other photos, but it was an awesome day!

JUNE 8th: Happy Birthday to me.... I am now officially "two upside down chairs" LOL. The day was made better by the fact that the band and chorus students were all gone on a field trip, leaving us with a total of 14 students in the sixth grade that day! :)

First time in the pool at the community center.... gotta get ready for my triathlon on July 11th (that I now can't do... see June 16th below.) :( It was sorta fun to get back into the pool again, but wow.... made me realize how much work I need in this area. Breathing while swimming is a whole different thing than breathing while doing strength training or "regular" cardio!

Benjamin's first swim of the season... crazy boy!

Noah's Wax Museum at school... he was Neil Armstrong (and looked awesome in that role, I might add!)

JUNE 9th: Chaperoned a field trip to Augusta with Noah's 4th grade... fun, fun!
Even though it rained, we had a great time. Toured the state house, the museum and Old Fort Western.

Outside the state house

Inside the Maine Museum

Grinding sugar in the kitchen at Old Fort Western

Buttering the toast after toasting it in the fireplace

Noah washing dishes.... look quickly cause it doesn't happen often!

Weaving on the loom

Making shingles

AJ made his appearance as the Mad Hatter (British accent and all!) in the school production of "Dorothy Meets Alice"... awesome show!

June 13th: Noah's 10th birthday, and the last day of baseball and lacrosse.... made it through another season!

Celebrated the end of the season (and the birthday) with a trip to DQ...

June 15th: Whale watching field trip to Gloucester MA with AJ and his class...

Checking out baleen

I cannot deny this boy, can I?? Damn, he's almost as tall as me and weighs about the same, even! ;)  

JUNE 16th: Appointment with the podiatrist. My plantar fasciitis is acting up again (this time in the other foot!), so he has me wearing the night splint and orthotics, gave me a cortisone shot, and I'll see him in 3 weeks. Totally bummed (well, maybe a slight bit relieved too, if I'm honest...) that I can't do the 5K on June 20th or the triathlon on July 11th. :(

JUNE 18th: My last day of school!!! (It's rained almost every damn day since!)

JUNE 24th: We head to Montreal with the Boy Singers of Maine for a choral festival.... can't wait. Finished cleaning the van today... will finish packing (start packing, I should say..) tomorrow, and then we're outta here Wednesday morning!

Counting down the days....

until the end of the school year! Thirteen and a half as of tomorrow.... but when I factor in the 2 days that I am chaperoning field trips for Noah and AJ, the field trip for my 6th graders, and the band field trip that will take most of my students (on my birthday, no less... happy birthday to me!) and we're under TEN actual teaching days left this year. Holy cow....

The week in review
Last week was just another in the string of busy weeks we've had lately.... after Wednesday night's pack meeting for scouts, we had Benjamin's school production of Anansi and the Strange Moss Covered Rock. SO cute! Benjamin was in the "monkey" group... how appropriate, right? Here's a picture of him in his costume (basically just brown clothes and a mask):

So that was Thursday.... Friday I decided to chaperone the last school dance of the year because I wanted to bring AJ so that he could meet some of my students. He had fun, and although I could tell that he was nervous at first, he ended up having a pretty good time, I think. We left there at 9 and ran into Wal-mart for a bit of grocery shopping. The boys' school fair was yesterday, and I had volunteered to make a cake for the Cake Walk that is always a popular event... but of course I didn't have a cake mix, so had to get one. While I was there I decided just to do the shopping for the week (mostly produce and milk), so we didn't get home until about 10. So much for making the cake that night... not gonna happen.

Saturday was the day I originally planned to take off from the gym so that I could go to AJ's lacrosse games, but it didn't turn out that way. I had to renew my certification to teach bb to the cub scouts at day camp, and the last training session was yesterday, so I had no choice but to go. AJ's games were at 9 and 10 here in SP, but when I got up at 5 (to make the cupcakes LOL... by this time I figured out that these would be faster and easier than a cake!) it was pouring, so I headed to the gym, thinking that both lacrosse games and Benjamin's baseball would be cancelled. Not so, of course, since (thankfully) the sun came out and the games were on. I got home from the gym just in time to see everyone off with Arthur and get ready for my training, which was at 10 in Raymond (at Camp Hinds). By the time I took a shower, frosted and decorated the cupcakes (nothing fancy, just sprinkles... but I did the school colors wiht the frosting) and dropped off the raffle tickets for baseball that were being drawn at noon, I headed out for the training knowing full well that I would be late... crap. It wasn't a big deal, since I was already certified previously, and I only missed it by 15 minutes, so it was all good. BONUS... the training was scheduled to last until 2, but ended at 12:15 (thanks Tom!), so I was able to make it home in time to go to the school fair with the kids! :) Well, at least I thought that they would be there... turned out that it was a little harder to find them than I thought it would be, though. Craziness... I called the house when I got on the road to let them know that I would be home for the fair after all. Well, AJ was the only one home, because a friend had dropped him off after their lacrosse games were over (they won both!). Arthur and the other 2 boys had gone to Benjamin's game, which was originally scheduled for 11am, so I assumed that they would be home shortly after (or maybe even before) me. I tried to call Arthur on the cell phone that he's been using (belongs to his friend), because I saw that he had called me earlier, but he didn't pick up. Shocker.. not. He HATES cell phones with a passion and always swore he'd never have one. Anyway... they didn't show up, so I grabbed a change of clothes for Benjamin and headed up to the school fair, thinking that maybe they went directly there. I didn't see Arthur's truck though... so I dropped AJ off and headed to the baseball field, thinking that I could intercept them. By the time I got to the field a few minutes later, I remembered that the game was being played on the other side of town at the National League fields. UGH. I was practically out of gas at that point and decided just to call the house and leave a message, then head to the fair. (My life.... crazy, huh?) Anyway, when I got to the fair, I discovered from talking to another parent who has a son on Benjamin's team that the game had been changed to noon, so they were likely still playing. I left school again, headed to get gas in order to go over to the field, and received a call from Arthur in the meantime. He and the boys were just getting home and changing. I got gas, went home and delivered the change of clothes to Benjamin, and we headed to the fair (it was now a little after 2...and the fair ends at 3:30). Benjamin and I rode our bikes and Noah rollerbladed... much easier than trying to find parking.... and we all enjoyed the rest of the fair. (I gave Arthur the rest of the afternoon off b/c he had morning duty). Here are some cute pictures of Benjamin eating cotton candy while waiting in line for the bouncy house... I was holding the cotton candy and taking pictures at the same time LOL).

Here's a couple of cute pics of Benjamin and one of his friends, too....

Goofy boys, huh? Hey, I figure that a couple of goofy photos are worth it if I get a good one out of it, right? A little bribery can be a good thing!

I worked at the gym today since I traded to have yesterday off. It was pretty boring there for most of the day, but I managed to get all of my papers corrected, so that was a good thing! :) After that, I found lots of little projects to do.. washing the doors and windows, re-doing the class board, general cleaning up and organizing....stuff to pass the time. I keep remembering that saying from McDonald's so many years ago.. time to lean, time to CLEAN. I feel guilty standing around doing nothing when there is always something I can find to do, kwim? I wish all kids had the same work ethic... *sigh* I need to expect more from my own in that area too.

Oh well... time for bed after I throw in a load of laundry. Night all!

Where did Spring go?

Cuz seriously... it was nice for what... like 2 days?? And now the weather seriously sucks. Our 6th graders are going to be in Ocean Park all day tomorrow, and even though we'll mostly be inside, we'll be in buildings that have been closed up all winter and have no heat. Joyous. Well, at least we can be thankful that tomorrow is not the day we're going to Boston and walking part of the Freedom Trail.... that's next Wednesday (our original date was tomorrow though... whew!).

We had the last pack meeting of our Cub Scout pack tonight and AJ had a concert for band. Since it's impossible to be in 2 places at once, Arthur took AJ to the concert, and I brought Noah and Benjamin to scouts. Thank goodness for technology... at least I'll be able to watch the video! ;)

Here are a couple of photos from the meeting.... first up is Benjamin getting ready to cross-over and become a Bear scout, followed by his big smile post bridge:

Here's Noah crossing over after receiving his "staff"... since the boys who were already Webelos didn't need to get a neckerchief or book, our cubmaster carved these walking sticks for them... pretty cool!

Well, that's gonna have to do for tonight... it's been a long day, and I need to get to bed before I fall asleep in front of my laptop.... as I've been known to do! ;)

Busy week coming!

Don't be surprised if this is the last blog post until later in the week... we're gonna be busy for the next couple of nights with Cub Scouts and  AJ's band concert tomorrow and Benjamin's school play on Thursday. Of course, there are supposed to be baseball games both nights too... but we can only fit so much into the schedule until we're able to clone ourselves, right? ;)

I'm definitely feeling the effects of yesterday's workout today.... I'm sore all over. Usually it's either the quads or the glutes/hamstrings, but I'm feeling both of them today.. ouch. Oh, and let's not forget the chest, arms and back.... they're making their presence known too! ;) Needless to say, I went easy on myself this morning LOL.... did my warm up and then just 30 min on the stationary bike before using the foam roller and stretching. That was enough. I like being sore because I know I've worked hard, but I need to give myself a break sometimes too.... I'm not always good at that. ;) Weight was down a little today (156.6) so I'm making progress toward my goal.... hoping to keep it going!

Sad news out of OOB over the weekend.... another of my former students has died too young. He was just 19 and apparently overdosed, but it's not clear whether it was intentional or accidental at this point. So sad and such a waste. RIP Todd Newton....

Well, I need to go fold some laundry... same story, different day. Will I EVER catch up with it?? The odds are not good! ;)

I'll try to be back sooner rather than later...... I'm feeling the pressure to keep my streak going, after all! :)

Happy Memorial Day!

What wonderful weather we have had today... absolutely PERFECT for the Memorial Day parade we participated in here in South Portland. AJ marched with the Memorial Middle School Band, while his brothers and I marched with Pack 37 Cub Scouts and Arthur manned the video camera. There was an excellent turnout... due in part, no doubt, to the weather. Just a terrific day all around! Here are a couple of photos from the event, and post event trip to DQ:

Just in case anyone is wondering, NO I didn't have anything from DQ. ;) It was tempting, but after the workout I had this morning, I didn't want to waste any of those calories that I burned, kwim?

So about the workout.... yeah. Literally EVERYONE (except for one other member) who frequents the gym in the wee hours slept in this morning... which I realized when I pulled into to the nearly empty parking lot and asked myself yet again WHY I had signed up for training at 5am on a holiday!! Oh well.... at least I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing me screw up while attempting to do the more challenging parts of my new program! ;) It was challenging too.... I'm already sore as I'm sitting here and no doubt will be much more so tomorrow. After my session with Matt, I stuck around for some extra cardio work. My friend Christina thought she might come in and do some with me, but she apparently was in the majority who decided to sleep in (well deserved, since she typically opens the gym M-F at 4am..UGH.) Anyway... I ended up riding the stationary bike for 30 min and then ran for 12, followed by 10 minutes of walking to cool down. Finished up with foam rolling and stretching and called it a day... out of there at 7am. GREAT way to start the morning once I got going! :)

After the parade (home around noon), I spent the rest of the day working around the house and encouraging the boys to do the same (without a huge amount of success, I might add...). I mean, I got a lot done, but them? Not so much. ;) AJ worked outside with Arthur for a while in an effort to help set up the pool for the season (yay!) and clear up the yard, then Arthur mowed the lawn as well. I cleaned in the kitchen and  bathroom and did more laundry (never-ending)... and I'm going to work on folding it shortly. I also finished up the last of Benjamin's cub scout requirements for his rank badge and got all kinds of paperwork taken care of, plus made a new recipe for dinner for Arthur (scallop scampi.... he got it all, since I don't like scallops). AND of course, my other accomplishment today is doing this blog post... woohoo! :) A good day indeed!

Two weeks from today is my birthday. I'm going to be "two upside down chairs" as my friend Claire from the gym informed me... LOL! (That's 44 for those of you who didn't get that!) Anyway.... I'm stating right here that I'm going to work really hard between now and then to get into the 140's by that date. This morning I weighed in at 157. It's only 7 pounds.... I CAN do it. Just have to remember that "Food is fuel" mantra that Matt keeps trying to drill into my head.... but dammit it's a constant battle... I just like food!

Back to work tomorrow... only 18 more school days (minus the two personal days that I have to chaperone field trips for AJ (whale watch) and Noah (Augusta trip) and the Boston trip on the Downeaster that my students are taking on June 3rd... and wow. Not much time left at all! (How do ya' like them apples, bro?) ;)

Wow... where did time go??

So, here it is May 24th... and I've been made aware recently by my relatives *waving at Debbie and Heather* that my last post was way back on May 11th.... so here I sit at 9:28 at night, preparing a long overdue post. *sigh* I planned to go to bed by 9 at the latest... so I hope you're happy that I'm doing this for you Debra. ;)

Problem is... life is so busy right now, and so much has happened since the last blog post, that I feel overwhelmed every time I think about coming up with stuff to blog about. When I last posted, it was May 11th... and the one thing I forgot to write about was the fact that from that day it will be exactly two months until the sprint triathlon that I'm participating in. Yikes! Considering the fact that I still haven't swum a stroke in training, and that I broke my pinky toe and couldn't run for a month.... I'd say that training is progressing as well as can be expected. ;)  At this point, it's more about psyching myself up for it LOL. I went to a free training session offered at Peak Performance Multi-sport last week, and actually got a lot of good, helpful information about the basic neccesities and common mistakes that beginners make. I decided that there are a couple of inexpensive items that I really would like to pick up prior to the race that will make things a bit easier in the transitions. I picked up a schedule for the municipal pool and plan to get over this week; I've also started to add running back into my training now that my toe is FINALLY feeling better. One suggestion from the info session was to practice going from the bike to the run in order to prepare your body for that change in muscle usage. So... this week I've been doing just that. Supposedly you only need to run for a few minutes after biking; it's not necessary to do the whole 5K or anything. Earlier this week, when I tried running again for the first time, I only went for 10 minutes... just wanted to test it out. Today I did 15 and it really was fine... felt like I could easily have kept going. GREAT feeling to know that my conditioning is still intact. ;) OK.... enough time on this subject.... onward to other stuff.

Hmmm... opened up camp today (which of course, some of you already know, since you were there too!). What a lovely day it was supposed to be... sunny, warm. Yeah, right. Wouldn't it figure that as soon as we got outside to work, the raindrops followed shortly thereafter? It's camp, afterall. In typical fashion, the sun came out just as we were getting ready to go home.... grrrr. I hope that's not a sign of the weather to come this summer.... that would be a pisser.

Benjamin decided today on the way home from camp that he wants a haircut. He's totally my haircut boy anyway... he's the one who always wants to go see Ann the barber. Well, since Ann is not available on Sunday afternoons... it was Mom to the rescue. Here are the before and afters....


I told him it was going to be SHORT... he was fine with it!

The other big happening this week was Noah's performance in the annual Skillin School variety show. He sang "Gotta be Somebody" by Nickleback and did an outstanding job with it... I was SO proud of him! We videotaped it, but haven't figured out how to get it from the camera to the computer yet... ugh. Hopefully I'll figure it out eventually....

Alright, that's going to have to satisfy the masses for tonight. I've stupidly scheduled a 5am training session with Matt even though I could have slept in..... *sigh* Oh well, I've got to be up for the parade anyhow.... Happy Memorial Day everyone. :)

Monday, Monday....

Wow, it was a Monday alright.... but hey, there are only a few more to go before we're out of school for the summer. :)

I had my workout with Matt this morning at 5am... that actually went pretty well, all things considered, between my broken toe and the fact that I hadn't lifted since a week ago Friday. I am already feeling the effects, as a matter of fact... and no doubt will be feeling them even more tomorrow!

When I left for school this morning, I went as usual to the child care place that the boys go to in the afternoon in order to drop off my car, but realized after a few minutes of waiting for my friend Carrie to show up that I should check to make sure that we were riding together.... only to find out that she was already at school LOL. I had forgotten that she had to be there early, so I was almost late myself because I didn't leave South Portland until 7:30. Oops.... great way to start the day, huh?

School itself was pretty good, although the kids seemed a bit on the hyper side today. Not a good sign, since the full moon was LAST week LOL.

Stopped at the grocery store briefly before picking up the boys.... bought some steel cut oats for the first time, so I'm looking forward to trying those out tomorrow morning. I love my Quaker oats, but I've been hearing how great the steel cut oats are.... so we'll see.

OMG... watching 24 here. I just love this show! How can there only be 2 more hours??

Back to today's business... after getting home I began work on packing up tomorrow's snacks and lunches. Arthur was nowhere to be found... he is working for the next couple of days, installing garage doors for the people who own the video store up the street. I had a feeling that he wouldn't be home until dark, so it would be up to me to get AJ to his guitar lesson at 5:30. I also realized that I hadn't mentioned to Arthur that I had a cub scout leader meeting scheduled at 6:45, so I wasn't sure if he'd make it home for that either. Well, long story short, he didn't... but on the bright side, that did mean that I actually had time to make dinner for everyone and even prepare a second portion of the dinner I had tonight to bring for lunch tomorrow. Good stuff!

Holy crap... this show has so many twists and turns! I can't even believe what just happened!

So, tomorrow is the live finale of the Biggest Loser.... SO looking forward to it! Damn, I just hope that Helen doesn't win.... she's the only one that I absolutely do NOT want to see as the champ for this season. I'd even take Ron over her.... at least he's supportive of his kid (maybe too much so, but still... Helen sacrificed her daughter to stay at the ranch herself, for crying out loud!) and was clear about that from the very beginning. We all know who HE wants to have become the Biggest Loser.

Before the show, Kelly LaBrecque is hosting a special half hour episode of her Fit at Five series.... looking forward to watching that too!

Well, there are only 10 minutes left until bedtime... guess I need to finish up here and make sure that our clothes are all set for tomorrow... night everyone! :)