Happy 30th Mom and Dad!

Saturday the 25th we celebrated my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. Tracey came up and we went to Kezar Falls for the BBQ!


The day ended up being really beautiful, despite being extremely hot! Luckily we had brought our dining canapy so we could get a little bit of shade.

All of the food was delicious and it was really great to see some friends and family that we don't get to see very often!

30 years is really quite an amazing accomplishment! Derrick and I have only been married 2 months (to the day as I am writing this!) and we are already sick of eachother (I kid, I kid!!!)!! No really, the 8 years that Derrick and I have been together seems like an eternity, I can't even fathom 30 years! So, Congratulations Mom and Dad and I hope there are many more happy years to come!

For a few more pictures go here:

http://s295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/arolin1/30th%20Anniversary/

Love, Sarah

Ew

Recycling is a lot more work than I thought it would be. It's like adding on extra dishes to do. Instead of just tossing something in the trashcan which is right at hand, I have to rinse it and sort it, take full bags of recycling downstairs and then to the dump. Composting is also a lot of work. You have to make sure that the organic scraps make it into a separate container, and then when that container is full you have to take it out to the compost pile, and then rinse the container.
I am not saying this as a complaint. After all, we are doing our part to help the planet and that is a good thing! I am saying this to explain how much effort we put in to doing our little part to help. It is not much, but it is a start.
The downfall of recycling and composting is that we do not generate as much general trash as we used to, and the trash that we do generate tends to be meat scraps and other gross stuff that ends up sitting in the trash until it is full. Sometimes it takes us a week to fill the trash can, and in that time it can become quite smelly. We have been generally able to deal with the smell, but it became VERY apparent on Saturday night that we need to either get a smaller trashcan, or we need to take the trash out as soon as it starts to smell!
Tracey, Derrick, and I arrived home from my Parent's 30th Anniversary party (more on that later) around 10-10:30 we turned on the light to a scene from a horror movie! There were frickin MAGGOTS covering the floor in the kitchen and some of the rug in the living room. Some had even made it as far as the bathroom!! It was one of the more horrifying things I have ever seen! We got out the vacuum and started sucking them up. They really like to burrow in the carpet, so those were tough, and we had to lift everything up to get underneath. But, we got as many as we could see, and we did several sweeps with the vacuum just to be sure.
Needless to say, we plan to guy a smaller trash can very soon, that will hopefully force us to take the trash out more often! Until then, I guess we are just going to have to take it out at the first sign of smelliness, regardless of if it is full or not!
Love, Sarah

Superfriends Camping!!

For those of you that don't know, Superfriends Camping is a camping trip that we go to every year with a group of friends from college. This year was the eighth year of the trip, and the fourth year that we have gone to Pawtuckaway State Park in NH.

We arrived at Pawtuckaway on Friday afternoon. We set up our tent and sat around the campsite for the evening. It did rain a bit in the evening, so we spent most of the time under a canopy instead of around the fire. And, the bugs were pretty bad, so some of us spent a lot of time in the screen house. Luckily we made it to bed just before the torrential downpours started! It rained SOOO hard! It kept some of us awake I think (I sleep like the dead, so I was not woken up by the force of the rain!).

We all survived the flood though and Saturday morning we woke up to just cloudy skys and light rain here or there. We had signed up for Saturday breakfast, so when everyone else started waking up I started cooking! I had decided that I wanted to make some homemade english muffins from the recipe that the Sargents had given me, but I realized that I had only brought about half the yeast I needed! While I was thinking over what I wanted to do, the guys were trying to start a fire. Because of the rain all of the wood was very wet and it took a long time to get the fire going. It took even longer for it to be a good cooking fire! But,finally it was ready! We used our brand new gigantic frying pan to cook up some eggs, bacon, and delicious homefries!! I ended up making the english muffins with the yeast that I had. They ended up a little heavier than I would have liked, but they still tasted great, especially with my homemade strawberry jellies!!

Breakfast took so long that it was really more like lunch! After we were stuffed full of yummy food, we played a game of Trivial Pursuit (yeah, we are an exciting bunch!). We played boys against girls and the game seemed to take FOREVER! The game started out with the girls winning, and the boys (Nate especially) seemed to think that it was entirely because we were getting questions out of the "easy" box of cards! LOL!! They ended up winning anyways since we got tired of playing and finished with a shoot-out (whichever team could answer the most questions from a single card won), so I don't know what they were complaining about! We spent the rest of the afternoon by the lake and then returned to our campsite and the Kennedys started cooking dinner! We realized this year that our meals have become more and more complicated! But, we had some delicious chili and cornbread!

We spent the rest of the night by the fire. Oh yeah, a few people had to run to the store to get s'mores stuff since SOMEONE forgot to get s'mores stuff! Who forgets s'mores stuff???? It's a staple of camping! Anyways, we ended up getting to make s'mores, and Blinky got to show off his new toy - he made a color maker for the fire (see pictures on photobucket)! It is really cool and turns the fire really pretty colors! Luckily it didn't rain on us that night!

After packing up camp, we spent another glorious afternoon on the beach! There was some drama that went down and it turned out that a young girl was supposed to be watching her 3 yr old cousin and wasn't! They pulled him out of the water in time, and I hear that he is going to be ok, but it was pretty scary!

We had a wonderful time and can't wait for next year! Click here to see more pictures from the trip: http://s295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/arolin1/Superfriends%20Camping%202009/

And, in even more exciting news! Here are our professional wedding pictures! It took so long, but I LOVE them and am so happy! http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=4942409

Love, Sarah

Hello Summer!

We missed you desperately and are so glad that you are back! Please stick around for a while!

So, we finally got our replacement battery charger for the camera! Hooray! I am so glad that we can finally take pictures again! I wasn't sure in my last few posts if it was okay for me to let the news out yet, so I didn't say anything! But I got the go ahead - Congratulations to the Farrars, who just found out they are pregnant on th 4th of July! Can't wait to meet the little one!

This past weekend has been a lot of fun! Friday night Derrick went out with the boys, and I had the house to myself! Saturday we went to Goodwill with the Farrars to find outfits for the party we were going to later. When we were done there we headed to the Carson's for their annual cookout for Heath's birthday. We had some delicious food and drinks and had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone!

It was amazing how many little kids were running around! Pretty soon the kids are going to outnumber the adults! They were all so cute though, and there were only a few minor meltdowns! Claire was having a lot of fun playing in the daisy planter!

Even though there were a ton of kids, the adults still managed to have some fun! Sorry Nate, too bad they are both taken!! Nice try though!

We left the Carson's earlier than usual, and headed to Bubba's Sulky Lounge in Portland for Tim's 30th birthday bash! With our awesome 90s inspired outfits we were unstoppable! Think neon, tight-rolled jeans, air jordans, and flannel! Jenny and Nate danced the night away while Steve-O ran the pool table and Derrick watched. I floated between the pool table and the dance floor. We even got Derrick out on the floor for a few songs! We decided not to bring the camera in with us, so unfortunately we did not get any good pictures of us in our outfits! But I am sure there are some floating around, I will try to aquire them!

After two late nights, we were very happy to sleep in on Sunday (not that Derrick didn't sleep in on Saturday. . .until 1pm!). I went to Freeport with Chrissy. It was really great to walk around and get a fresh lemonade and enjoy the sunshine. Good outlet sales didn't hurt either! When I got home, Derrick and I made dinner together and sat on the porch with our meal and some fresh squeezed lemonade! After dinner we spent some time in our new hammock! We love that we can spend time enjoying our wonderful yard finally! It feels like summer has finally arrived! I can't believe that it is mid July already.

Coming up we have several camping trips, birthday parties, and my parents' 30th wedding anniversary! The summer is going by so fast and I feel like we haven't gotten anything done! We have a bunch of outside projects that we haven't gotten to because of the rain and Derrick is building me more shelves in the hall closet. We are pretty happy that the few things in the garden that have not been destroyed by the rain are about ready to harvest. We have had some new potatoes, and we just noticed that the broccoli is ready. We have been loving enjoying some fresh food! All of my jams came out sooooo good! And I am looking forward to making some more when blueberry and apple seasons come along! Maybe you will get a jar if you are lucky!

Click here to view more pictures from the first few weeks of July: http://s295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/arolin1/July%202009/

Love, Sarah

Wow!!!

We got a Roomba!!!!!!!!!! No more vacuuming (well, ok, LESS vacuuming than before!)

This post brought to you by Derrick's child like enthusiasm for anything with moving parts!

Love, Sarah, proud owner of an awesome, wonderful, amazing Roomba!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doh!

So, I was planning on trying to do a "picture a day" type post for a while. . .but then I realized that we left the battery charger for the camera in Costa Rica! Yup. So we haven't really been taking many pictures lately! We missed out on taking pictures for the 4th too!

The last week has been fairly uneventful! I got out of work early on Thursday and Derrick went to a friend's house to play poker. Friday we slept in a bit and then puttered around the house. Derrick tried to mow the lawn, but the mower wouldn't start. We thought it might be the battery. Later in the afternoon we headed to Windham to Home Depot to spend some gift cards! After that we drove around looking for a place to eat. The two criteria for selection were that the place had to serve beer, and it had to be a place that we had never been before! We headed West on 302 to take a look at a place that we had passed a while ago. It looks like a pretty good place to get seafood, but alas, it does not meet the first requirement! So, we headed back East on 302 and ended up going to Rose's, which turned out to be really good! We thought long and hard about getting a pizza - it's a brick oven! - but I just had to try the chicken marsala and Derrick had to try the alfredo! Both were excellent and I think we will definitely go there again! We have to try the pizza next time! It was a very nice random date night!

We slept in again on Saturday, but got up in time to enjoy a bit of sunshine! Shocking! Derrick replaced the mower battery and managed to get the mower started. I think it was just water logged! He got most of the lawn done before the mower died again. It was a good thing too since he made it inside in time to not get hailed on! While he was mowing I was prepping for our trip to Becky's family camp on Little Sebago. We got all packed up and headed across town. . .straight towards the darkest clouds! It started to rain again just as we arrived! Luckily it cleared up after dinner time and we were able to take a ride on the boat and get some swimming in. The rest of the evening was spent around the fire and watching the fireworks going off all around the lake! The neighbors rowed out to the float and set off fireworks right overhead which was pretty amazing! All of the kids loved it! It was really great watching all of the kids running around and playing in the water! The brood just keeps growing and growing! Anyways, it was a really good fourth of July!

Sunday we slept in, yet again! And then we met Deb, Hailey, Kelsey, and Nate in Gorham for strawberry picking! Despite the massive amounts of rain that we have gotten, the crops were not bad. We picked about 12 pounds of strawberries! Crazy! After strawberry picking, Derrick met the guys for some disc golf and I went grocery shopping and home. The weather held out that evening and we were able to have a BBQ with the Farrars.

Going back to work after a long weekend is always the worst! And when the first day back is one of the nicest days in a while it is even tougher! But, somehow we made it through! We spent Monday night setting up the hammock stand and prepping strawberries for pie and jam! I made strawberry-rhubarb pie (thank you to the Farrars for the rhubarb!) and about 20 4oz jars of strawberry jam on Tuesday night. I hope the jam came out alright - it was the first time that I have ever made homemade jam! Tonight I am going to make Strawberry Margarita Jam and Berry Wine Jelly!! I can't wait to see how those come out! I wish it could be strawberry season all year round!

So, next time we see you we will probably have a little jar of jam for you! Until then. . .take care and stay dry!

Love, Sarah