Sunday night's post - just gettin' back in the routine

Rats! I didn't realize it was 9:00 p.m. already.
cleaned house today
did laundry today
vacuumed, washed AND waxed car today and I am ready to crash.

Lucky for me, my mom has just sent me a perfect little synopsis of our trip!
(My comments are added in blue :o) )

Trip to New England

Jet Blue is the way to fly! No charge for baggage, or soft drinks or snacks. Plenty of leg room. No first class section, and boarding and security went quickly. (We also enjoyed XM radio and found out you can use your own standard headphones.)

We had no problem getting seats together--all we did was look forlorn, and I explained how we'd saved all year for this trip. Nice man at the gate fixed us up fine, and even gave us each a kiss on the cheek! ("Nice man" indeed! Actually, I think he was smitten with my mom and only gave ME a peck on the cheek to be polite!)

We stayed at an old Wyndham, which had been refurbished. The only problem we had was getting an internet connection in our room; Melle had to go down to the lobby to use the slower loading free internet there time after time. Finally she complained strongly when we left and the manager took off the cost of a movie we watched. (Yep, totally true, that's just about how it went!)

I washed my hair with the hotel shampoo on Wednesday and it dried looking like Art Garfunkel's. So luckily I had my wig along, and wore that the rest of the time. ("Art Garfunkel", yep, I'm afraid that was about true too. :o) )

Monday we visited the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA. It's simply grand! Dedicated to the art of children's books, it featured works by several other top artists besides Carle himself. We perused the little book store there, and picked up some gifts for the girls, as well as ourselves (!!). (My most favorite purchase was two yards of fabric that looks like Eric's work in Brown Bear, Brown Bear - gotta make new aprons for the art room out of that as soon as possible!)

Melle's father in law loaned us his GPS. Melle named it "Dee Dee", for everywhere we went there was a Dunkin Donuts shop, sometimes two opposite on the same street. New England thrives on DD! Dee Dee the GPS saved us many a time from getting lost. We really are happy to have had "her" help. (Yep, all totally true too! And each day (almost) started with a Boston Creme donut, until the word "Boston" was starting to leave a sour taste in my mouth because of all the interstate driving.)

Tuesday we flew from Plymouth to Nantucket. Saw some of Plymouth before we left for the puddle jumper trip to the island. There, we were taken sail boating and had a picnic lunch in the boat --a gorgeous day for sailing. Melle even learned how to use the tiller and take down the sail. She took many photos all along the way. Our host & hostess were Robert Frazier (poet/writer) and his wife, Karol. (That's right! Captain Jack Sparrow, watch out! Captain Melle is on the high seas!)

Wednesday it was time to travel to new Hampshire (New London) to visit Tomie De Paolo's book store --not actually his, but he lives nearby and his books are there, signed.
N.H. is the prettiest state I've ever seen! We were so impressed by the tidy villages and homes, the shrubbery and carefully orchestrated gardens. We ate at a delightful seafood/tearoom "The Millstone". Out in back, we discovered all sorts of photographical treasures. Melle has some posted at her blog. (Yes! and I'll attach a few more to this post.)

Got to meet with two fellow poets/friends on Thursday at Papa Razzi Italian restaurant outside of Providence. Long and enjoyable lunch and chat! (Lots of fun here too. Mom's friends made me feel very welcomed - we even chatted about photography a little :o) )

Finally back to the car rental place during Boston rush hour. It was horrible! We missed several turns because there was no way to change lanes. Made it about three minutes to closing. If we hadn't, we'd have had to get a cab back to the hotel.(Yep!)

Melle vows she will never drive in Boston again. Or anywhere like it! (Yep!!)I wrote a song about that en route back to Tampa, "Ain't Gonna Drive that Tobin Bridge No More" --something like Dylan's "Ain't Gonna Work on Maggie's Farm No More". LOL!

Wonderful time, wonderful memories. We'll do another trip somewhere in a year or so.
(Yep, to North Carolina to visit Donna Downey, or to Arizona somewhere???)

Off to bed - night, night everyone.
thanks for checking in!
Melle

New London, New Hampshire - a little piece of Heaven

New London, New Hampshire hometown to my most favorite children's author and illustrator, Tomie dePaola; New London, New Hampshire a beautiful little town.
The Morgan Hill Bookstore has a sweet little autographed collection of Tomie's books all for sale. The children's library has an even bigger collection of his books, including a whole glass cabinet filled with hundreds of books from early in his career to several in foreign languages. So incredibly amazing!!!!


I admit, I dreamed of running into him in town and often thought of what I'd say when I did ;o)
Of course I didn't, but the photos I left with, almost made up for it :o). There were beautiful gardens everywhere. These four were all taken from behind a restaurant we had lunch at. It was pretty amazing, it rained during lunch, cleared up to a tiny drizzle, until I brought my camera out and then it cleared up completely. It was beautiful.



Plenty more to work with when I get home - woohoo!!
I did purchase 3 of my favorite Tomie books:
The Art Lesson (of course)
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush
and The Legend of the Bluebonnet

Could of bought lots, lots, more, but I know these will serve us well in the classroom as well as fulfill a special place in my heart because so many moments in the stories remind me of my own childhood.
Love to all and sweet dreams,
Melle

Planes, trains, and automobiles....well, almost!

The internet in our room is still giving me trouble tonight.....which is okay I guess 'cause I am so ready for bed. After two commuter plane rides today to Nantucket, after sailing off the coast in a sailboat and after ANOTHER trip on the Tobin bridge through Boston, it was a two beer therapy at dinner tonight!
Unfortunately that means I'm having a difficult time posting any pictures.
(for those of you on FB, I did manage to get two photos posted! :o)

Tomorrow is off to New London, NH and a visit to Tomie dePaola's hometown bookstore! And who knows, perhaps a sighting of the man himself...hope, hope! :o)

I'll post pictures as soon as I can!

Missing everyone!
Melle

"Operation Caterpillar"

Operation Caterpillar was a big success!
However it took all kinds of new adventures to do it!!

1. Grandpa has another women in his life....I call her "Dolly" and let me tell you that GPS and I are the best of friends now! I could not of done this trip today without her help!

2. I don't recommend driving the freeways of Boston if you are claustrophobic, thanks to the tunnels nor would I recommend driving these freeways if you are afraid of heights, thanks to the bridges.

....and if you are lucky enough (or unlucky) the Tobin bridge even gives only the bravest a little of both. While you are driving high in the sky over some huge body of water, there is another level of highway right over your head!

.....however, again, all worth it for a visit to The Eric Carle Museum!


We weren't allowed to take pictures in the galleries, but we could take some of things outside of the gallery and in the studio that was available for children to create their own paper tissue collage. It was very inspirational - I picked up several ideas!! Woohoo!

Tomorrow should bring another day filled with "firsts".
We are up early for Plymouth, then a small plane to Nantucket and weather permitting, we plan to go sailing!

Thank you God, for such blessings!
Thank you for watching over my loved ones while I'm away.
Love, Melle

Good Morning Massachussettes!!!!!

Woohoo! We are here and made it with ease. JetBlue was our airline, I highly recommend it if you ever need to travel. :)

The only disappointing thing ,so far is that I could not get on the internet in my hotel room last night!! Even now I am only on the one in the hotel lobby (at quarter of 7 in the morning....I just couldn't wait any longer to get my fix)! So, no photos yet either, but hopefully by the end of the day I will get that resolved.

Today we plan to rent a car and travel about 2 hours west to Amherst MA. I admit I am really nervous about driving here, but getting to visit The Eric Carle Museum will be totally worth it!
I am also a little anxious about visiting the gift shop at the museum......because I am sure I will want to buy everything - for the classroom of course! :o)

So sweet of you all to follow along!!!!
Love you!
Melle

Leaving on a jet plane!

Wow - so cool - mom and I really are sitting here at the airport in Tampa, waiting for about another hour for our flight to Boston, MA!
Okay, stay tuned for tonight's update :)
Melle

I'm so surprised.....

I'm so surprised - after my taking 128 photos last weekend at Grandma Gail's surprise birthday party that this weekend, the 4th of July, Grandma's actual birthday, I only took ONE photo!!
However, I did manage this cute shot of Gail blowing out the candles...I couldn't even see what I was doing, I just held the camera up and guessed! Hee, hee, not bad!!
Happy Birthday Grandma! And Happy 4th of July everyone! It ended up raining a good part of the day, but still a great day.

I'm so surprised - that I was trying to purge scrapbook paper that "I'll never use" and ended up making the next two sets of note cards.



I'm so surprised - that I actually was able to decorate a photo album intended to help document a motorcycle road trip. Grandma's sister, (Aunt Debbie and Uncle John) did the Tail of the Dragon trip through the mountains of North Carolina on their Harley Davidson motorcycles.

You may not be able to tell under the black tulle but I started with the white painted swirl on the front cover and carried the swirl theme throughout the book.


I'm so surprised - that I'm already feeling the stress of "school is about to start".....
I have a full agenda this week;
Mom and I leave for our week vacation to the Boston area (which will be totally cool, I'm sure!)
Then I only have two weeks left before I'm back to school......eeeeekkkk!!!!!
Not that I'm not happy to go back.....umm, I'm just not ready for those long days and I've still got so much to do around here!!
Anyway!
Here's to enjoying the summertime we have left!!!
Love,
Melle