It was a great plan, but....

I went to work this morning, determined to clean my office. After a busy couple of months, I have a little breather and it seems like a good time to start fresh with a nice clean, uncluttered office. But I didn't get very far. I'd put away one thing and someone would give me something else. Every little thing I tried to take care of turned into a big thing that needed lots of attention. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.
While I'm writing this, I am IM-ing with Toby and talking about Thanksgiving plans. It's amazing how computer technology has changed our way of doing things. Paul's mother e-mails and IM's with the kids and they think she's pretty cool. Of course, she gives them money, so they think that's pretty cool, too.
I've been listening to Anita Shreve's book " A Wedding in December" on my way to work. It's about a group of high school friends who come together when they are in their 40's to attend a wedding between two of them. One of them asks another "Are you capable of remembering who you thought you'd be when you were seventeen? Who you imagined you'd be in twenty-seven years time?" I've been thinking about that question on and off today. The simple answer would be that I thought I would be an art teacher, and that I'd be married with a couple of kids. But I'm not sure that's what the author means. She's asking "who" you would be, not what you would be doing. I think I have to think about this some more. It's hard to remember what I was thinking at 17 - it was soooo long ago. Any of you cousins have an answer? The closer you are to 17 the easier it should be.
That's it for now.
Betsy

Phew, A Chance to Relax!

I've had a busy week and it's great to have time to write a new post and catch up on your comments. I've spent the last two days at the Maine Archives and Museums Conference which was held in Belfast. I helped with local arrangements so was responsibile for catering and conference rates at a local motel and a B&B. I also hosted the annual meeting and reception at our library. It was a great success and I enjoyed it, but I'm glad it's over so I can back to my real work. It's great to hear from Mark, Bernie and Dana. Bernie, I'm really happy that the Cardinals won - not sure why, but I guess the fact that they beat the Mets made them the favorite in my book.
I guess I should tell you a little about what we have been up to, though it's probably not news to most of you. I am Reference/Special Collections Librarian at the Belfast Free Library and commute from the old home town each day. It's a great job which I love doing and I feel truly appreciated by my director, the board and my patrons. Paul is a Lt. with the University Police Department and is Commander of the Community Policing Division - which means he is in charge of the patrol force. Working on a University Campus provides it's own kinds of challenges and life is never dull. I had forgotten what it was like to have him working late into the evenings or on weekends, and am having a hard time adjusting to that again. And those middle of the night phone calls..... Toby is in year 5 at Maine - Peter suggested he might try to break his record of 7 years, but I don't think that will be necessary. (Actually, I had a pretty lengthy stay of my own, as did my brother Wayne)
He is a theater major with a music minor. He lives on campus in an apartment type place with 5 other people. One of those is his girlfriend, Michelle, who is a social work major from Kennebunk. We see them fairly often, though it's never often enough for me. I think he will get on here and can tell you about himself a bit when he has a chance. That's us in a nutshell. I'm involved with the Old Town Museum (with Uncle Kenny) and the state library association. Paul is still on a committee or two with Boy Scouts, though not nearly as active as he used to be, and is taking classes to finish up his Bach. degree. We don't seem to have much time for house and yard work :-) and feel like we've accomplished something if the laundry gets done each week, the dishes get washed fairly regularly and the trash gets put out. Well, I can hear Paul snoring in the next room, so I guess I'll get going to bed. Perhaps I'll talk to you again tomorrow.
Betsy
Oh, yea - Maine Hockey beat UMass tonight 4-1 to remain undefeated. Yeehaw!

Let's get started!

Well I sent out e-mails yesterday. Quite a few bounced, so please share with your siblings if you think they are interested. You don't have to have e-mail to participate in a blog - just an internet connection. If you have never blogged before, here's how it works. I will make entries on a regular basis - I'll talk about my family and what we are doing and also other uncles, aunts and cousins I run into in the course of my travels. By clicking on "comments" at the bottom of any post, you can make an entry about that post or anything you would like to share with the family. You will find a box where you can type your comment and some choices of how you want to be identified. You can click on "other" and type you name, or just click on "anonymous" and identify yourself in your post. Then click on "publish your comment" and it will be posted. You can also read other comments when you click on the comment link. You may notice that as I am writing this, there are 0 (that's zero) comments so far, so please don't be shy. I'd like to hear from you.
More later...

A rainy Monday morning and I'm at work, covering the children's floor for a little while. It's fun to see all the little kiddos. Speaking of little kiddos, I also got to see Gary's granddaughters this weekend, Hannah (Kevin's daughter) and newborn Emma (Brian's daughter.) They are both beautiful. It's great to see another generation coming along. Rob's son Michael also has a little boy, Benjamin, who is about 1 1/2 now. I've only seen pictures but hope to get out there to play with the real thing before he gets too huge (sigh!) I think those are the only three so far.
My plan is to send an e-mail out to all cousins that I have addresses for today, so that I'm not just writing this for myself. That's it for now.
Betsy

Welcome Family

Hi Everyone!
This weekend, Gary's son Nick got married and Peter and Franny and families were all here. It was great to see them all. I was talking to Peter about updating the family e-mail address list and we agreed that a blog might be the way to go. I've never done one before and am not sure how well I'll do keeping it updated, but it's worth a try and should be fun. I've been trying to think of something to blog about for awhile.
This weekend also was homecoming at UMaine and I went to the football game in search of Roger and Peter, who I knew were tailgating. Paul had to work at the game, so I was looking for someone to sit with. Well, I didn't ever find them, but Uncle Frank and John came along so I sat with them. It was great. As you can imagine, Frank was pretty serious about the game, especially when Hofstra started scoring, but John and I talked pretty steadily throughout the game - still paying attention to the big plays of course. :-)
Maine won 21-10 (go blue!) and I had a great afternoon. We topped the day off with Aunt Connie's beans (Yum) and an evening of digital slides of Michael's trip to Japan and China, looking at old Sachems and watching Maine Hockey win again. (go blue!) What a great day.
I'm going to post this now and go try to gussie this blog up a bit. I hope you all will enjoy it and we can all share news of our families, photos, thoughts and some memories.
Betsy