Riley and Avery

First, there's tons of local and organic products available.  Like, a ton.  Plus, they don't shaft you on the prices like they seem to do everywhere else.  Of course, there are some exceptions, but for the most part they are competitively priced, and often even cheaper.  We got local handmade butter for a lower price than factory butter.  Potatoes are the same.  Even local mustard, honey, jams, just everything under the sun.  And when I say "local," I mean just down the street.  Our milk is from Scarbourough, which is about 3 miles down the road :)

While I was busy examining the hermit crabs in the girls' room, I hear Riley reading to Avery and talking about stuff.  It was cute to see them interacting that way, so I videotaped it!

I'm such a nerd.  Riley's big hermit crab is my favorite, because it is colorful and beautiful, and very very active, and not shy at all (doesn't pop back into her shell when you look at her).  She buried herself about two weeks after we came back from Maryland.  So, beginning of August-ish?  She had been buried ever since.  I knew that hermit crabs molted, and that they stayed buried for about a month, but it was terrible waiting for her to re-emerge, wondering if she was dead, etc.  Hermit crabs frequently die from "bad molts."  She was so much my favorite!

Just a quick one.  The girls slept in their own beds last night, on their own floor of the house.  All night.  They didn't wake up once.  Which kind of confirms my suspicion that bed sharing with a nearly-5yo and a nearly-7yo upsets everyone's sleep!  None of us were sleeping well in that situation! 

We finally made it to Old Port, and couldn't have picked a better way, weather-wise.  A cool, foggy, and rainy morning gave way to sunny mid-eighties weather.

I was impressed with Old Port.  There's a really nice toy store there, and plenty of places to eat seafood and sushi.  However, a cruise ship had docked and Old Port was filled with cruise-shoppers.  The cruise ship was amazing to look at, though!  No.way.in.hell I'd get on it, though.  No way!  If I have to get on a boat, it needs to be a smallish one.  Just saying that a boat bigger than the state of Rhode Island is not my cup of tea.  Rudi said that he wanted to go on one really bad, but there have been many times that I've wanted him to go on an airplane really bad, so he'll just have to suck it :)  I'm definitely in for a whale-watching trip, and they have sailboat trips that look fun.  But cruise ship?  Um, no.

So cute!  Angela just sent me a picture of Lola as a pup, which is great timing since the girls have been begging to see a dachshund puppy so they wold know what one looks like!  How stinkin' cute is she?

So, we got a cat.  First, because we have mice.  Second, because we simply wanted one!

We went to the Animal Refuge League.  They have a very thorough way of evaluating cats based on their personalities.  Then, the families fill out a survey and are matched with a category of cats that would best suit the household.

Stupid thing like back-to-school night make me giddy.  I'm weird.  I think things like that make me feel like a grown up :)   At the age of 34, I still don't feel like an adult!

All I can say about Dyer School is WOW!  Love it!  Miss Foster has been teaching for 25 years, and over the years she has amassed an amazing quantity of books.  Holy cow, every wall is filled with organized little bins of books.  Literally, no exaggeration, she has a couple thousand at least.  Just totally awesome.

We managed to get a short trip to the beach in before sending Riley off too school.  However, we did NOT pick a very warm day!  Had we waited a week, the weather would have been a lot better.  From what I gather, the shore in Maine is usually rocky.  Sandy beaches have to be sought out.  The thing I do like is that we can go to the beach to go to the beach, and don't have to worry about the vendors, rides, food, etc.  It's just the beach.  If we want touristy beach, we can make the quick drive to Old Orchard Beach (about 12 miles away).  Don't get me wrong, I love touristy beaches, but not every single weekend.  That would absolutely kill our budget.  The beach we went to was Willard Beach, only about a mile long.  It has barrier islands that act as breakwaters, so the surf is really gentle (more like the surf on the bayside of Ocean City).  Avery was comfortable enough to actually wade a bit inot the water.  We were the only ones crazy enough to be there on a windy and cool day.  The water was a tad chilly, but warmer than I expected it to be.  Kind of like Ocean City in June.

Riley was up-and-at-'em on her first day, so excited to start school.  We arrived early so that we could meet her teacher.  Miss Foster seems like she'll be a great teacher for Riley.  There are only two first grade classes at Dyer Elementary, so the school's not HUGE, but definitely larger than Golden Mountain.  After meeting Miss Foster, she took her out onto the playground (there is playground supervision starting at 8:30 until 8:45 when school starts) and she found a girl named Elise who helped Riley find where to line up when the bell rang, and helped her with the morning routines.  After that, Riley just ran onto the playground with Elise and didn't even hug me or say good-bye!

We are finally making progress! We go here late, thanks to a nasty and ill-explained detour. It's 11:30 pm and Rudi took Riley and Avery to Denny's for a bite to eat while I chill in the hotel with Lola. I tell you, in unfamiliar places (hotels), Lola DOES NOT like anyone to be missing, particularly Rudi. She is whining all over the place and scratching at the door. It's driving me crazy. Even if I can get her into bed with me, she keeps an eye on the door. She is really bonding with Rudi, since she is riding with him. The moving truck has a huge space between the front seats and Rudi put way too much thought into how to make it comfy for Lola. Once Lola learned that neither running under Rudi's feet or chasing a fly in the truck are desirable activities on the road, she's been doing well. The girls are hanging in there, considering that this is our 5th night in a hotel.

Sitting here in a hotel room for the second night and I even update the blog!  About time, right?

We picked up the truck today and loaded it all up.  It's weird to look at a 15 foot truck, knowing that all of your worldly possessions are in it!  The movers loaded it really well and worked magic getting it all on.  We did get rid of a lot of stuff, but nothing really that we hadn't planned on ridding ourselves of.  Now the task of cleaning the apartment.  Fun times.  Tomorrow will be full of cleaning and then we leave on Saturday morning for Maine!  Oh, yeah!