Risen Today!!

The last couple of weeks have been "busy" (for a housewife) in preparation for Easter shenanigans to be done at the church!  I really love volunteering at The Rock!  Not only does it give me something fun to do, but it also helps me to fulfill my corporate and individual callings of being Jesus' hands and feet, and becoming involved with an amazing community of believers that all work together to accomplish God's purposes!  Amazing!  The thought of having to leave this church is becoming more and more sad by the day!

The first thing I was able to help with was making a Resurrection Eggs craft for the kiddos!  Similar to an advent calendar, but for Easter!  By opening an egg each day, the items inside tell the story of Jesus' Resurrection in craft form!  So cute!  50 dozen eggs later, this was the finished product!

The Rock Church also hosted an Egg Hunt and Family Fun Day, which was open to anyone who wanted to come!  There were over 4,000 plastic eggs stuffed with candy, chocolate, and prize tickets, and hundreds of kids to enjoy them!  Adding to the fun, there were also professional face painters, a pony ring, bunnies and chicks, popcorn and timbits, a bouncy castle, and uplifting music!  What a blessing to have a Church so dedicated to planting the seed and spreading the word of Jesus!  I'm so glad to have been a part of it!

Finally, and this one is my favorite, I was able to participate in Worship Team this week!!  SO EXCITING!!  I love singing so much, and it is such a blessing to be able to use my gift for worshiping Jesus publicly!  I am so thankful that The Rock Church has allowed me to participate in Worship Team even though we are leaving in a couple months!  Such amazing voices and instruments, so fun to be a part of!!

I was also able to attend an Easter Dinner with some new friends from the Church!  It is so nice to have a family away from home!  Overall, a wonderful Easter filled with God's love so visibly working through his followers in Maine!  PTL!

And of course, what Easter season would be complete without the start of BASEBALL SEASON!!  Andee and I watched the Blue Jays conquer the Indians in a record breaking 16 innings of play; the longest opening day on record!  And like the true Jays fans we are, Andee and I truly believe that the Jays have a legitimate chance of making it into the playoffs this year!  With the additional wildcard spot added, the AL East seems a little less daunting, and the new additions to the bullpen just adds to our hope!   Lets Go Blue Jays!!  We took a picture to celebrate - Andee's idea!!!!

Happy Easter!!

Surprise Summer!!

Out of sheer ridiculousness, on March 21 and 22, Maine experience a record high of 26°C (79°F) for two days in a row!!  INSANITY!!!  With the average high for March expecting a dismal 6°C, this kind of warm weather is so atypical and wonderful that I spent the entirety of this "summer" heat wave at the beach!  I got a little bit of my tan back, am looking slightly less sickly pale, and am completely refreshed and rejuvenated!  This warm streak should hold me for the next couple months until it warms up for good!  Best Spring Ever!!

Even Andee made it to the beach for a little R & R and Vitamin D!  And so did the majority of Maine!  People everywhere as if it were an actual summer's day!  Wonderful!!

That is all.  I just couldn't resist an excuse to talk more about the amazing warm weather and to post beach pictures of people wearing bathing suits as opposed to winter coats, mitts and scarves.  So Happy!! :)

Spring Has Sprung!!

With the recent heat wave the Northeast has been experiencing in full swing, the temperatures have well exceeded the average highs and have even been nice enough for somewhat enjoyable walks!  Unfortunately, living on the ocean almost guarantees a pretty significant wind chill, so the temperatures feel much cooler than they state on theweathernetwork.com.  But I will take what I can get!  This early Spring has gotten me so excited and optimistic not only about the lack of future snow, but the possibility of continuous above seasonal weather!  And after Spring comes SUMMER IN CANADA where Andee and I can enjoy beautiful weather, cottage trips, Jays games, and of course family and friends!  SO EXCITED!!!

As exciting as this next move is, we have grown quite fond of our new home!  Maine is absolutely beautiful, especially when you live on the ocean!  And the warm weather has escalated this beauty by allowing us to actually experience Maine outdoors!

And with The Rock Church and all its members and God at work here, it will definitely be hard to leave.  Who knows, maybe our journey will take us back!  This church is definitely special, and it is clear that Jesus is on the move in Maine!

Another amazing event that happens every Spring - BASEBALL SEASON!!  This weekend past, Andee and I were able to enjoy some Blue Jays Baseball on mlb.tv!  The new blue jerseys look great, and it was wonderful catching up with the players!  It has been a long winter without them, but with the summer ahead in Ajax, we will be soon seeing much more of them!

Countdown:  Just over a month until the arrival of the Aldridge Family!!  And with the arcade and amusement park beside us opening up in April, there will be many claw machine opportunities in our future!  With warm weather and such fun activities coming up, everything is so exciting!!

"Warm" Winter

So, a couple days ago we had a big snow storm.  However, it rained all the next day which completely rid us of the snow covered ground, leaving the giant mounds of snow caused by the plows as the only survivors.  Since it is March 5th, it is somewhat reasonable to believe/hope/pray that this snowstorm was indeed the last of its kind until next winter, and that we are in for a smooth transition to Spring!  The weather this week is supposed to spike to a whopping 17°C (62°F) on Thursday, so I am remaining optimistic!  **Side note, If you noticed that I did in fact use the word "whopping" to describe a mere 17°C, you can reasonably assume that I have effectively made the transition from St. Kitts tropics to Maine in the winter.  Well, sort of.  I would still much rather be lying in the sun looking at palm trees and monkeys....optimism, optimism, optimism.

This Winter has been an especially warm one, says The Weather Channel.  So warm, in fact, that there have been multiple days in February that I have willingly spent some substantial time outdoors!  And as for snow, only a few snow mounds remain, with absolutely none on the ground or on the beaches!  And with the window for snow this season quickly coming to a close, I am ecstatic!  PTL!  Now when I go outside my thoughts are merely "it is cold out" rather than "I want to kill myself".  PTL again!!  One of my favorite things to do when it is "warm" out?  Walk along the beach!  Some things never change!

As well as a little bit of outdoor time, we have also enjoyed some indoor Maine activities that we really enjoyed!  Last week, a few of us went indoor go-karting just down the street from our condo!  It was an intense course, with really fast go-karts, and it was really fun trying to keep up with everyone!

Andee and I have also gotten into the wonderful American tradition of eating!  There are a few places on the street that contain typical American grub that we just can't get enough of!  And with one portion generally spanning two meals, we definitely get great value too!  Yum!

Guess what else I have done?  The claw machine champ lives!  I challenge anyone who thinks they can outnumber my growing collection of claw machine animals!  Of course, that means you have to come to Maine and play, so come on down!!

We are also getting more and more involved in the Church, with weekly Women's Bible studies and couples small groups, a newcomers lunch with some of the staff, and myself starting to help out with some church events and fundraisers!  It really helps with all the moving around to find ways to contribute, especially when you can't work!  Pictures to come!

P.S. I apologize for the lack of interesting pictures, the cold weather seems to cause a lack of photo inspiration!  With the warmer weather headed our way, I promise to become more conscious of possible photo ops and fun activities!  Hurry up Spring!

Visitors to Maine

Long time no blog!  It would be impossible to attribute this brief blogging absence to a lack of time, so I'll have to attribute it to a lack of good pictures due to the lack of gorgeous Island views and scenery.  However, this past week we had some visitors from home, which allowed us to get out of the house and enjoy some sightseeing in Maine, even in the dead of Winter!  Fortunately, this Winter has been one of the mildest in a long time, and so my Mom, Auntie Anne, Andee and I were able to enjoy some time outside, as well as some indoor activities for the colder days!

The first day was one of the warmest of the week, and so we enjoyed a beautiful Portland Boat Cruise around the Islands of Casco Bay!  It was a beautiful sunny day, especially for February, and we really enjoyed the beautiful Maine scenery and spending time together!  We finished off the day with a delicious meal at Bell Buoy, a seafood restaurant down the street from our condo!  All you can eat shrimp, yum!

On the second day the three girls enjoyed another warm winter day by taking both walks up and down the beach and around the streets of Old Orchard Beach!  And I have to say, it wasn't that cold!  Of course I was (always am) wearing 2 pairs of thermal socks, long johns, and layers of shirts and sweaters underneath my regular clothes!  We were even able to take off our coats for some pictures!  It was my favorite kind of Winter weather....mild!  We also walked to another restaurant down the street for dinner, which was delicious!

The third day, Saturday, we did some American shopping, which included a trip to Wal-Mart.  It was here that we discovered the Aldridge passion, a Claw Machine!  I dropped off my Mom and Anne in front of the doors where the claw machine was, and by the time I had found a parking spot and walked towards the door, my Mom was already holding an animal and I was greeted with giggles and unbelief!  After playing for a while, we each won a few animals to add to our collection of winnings!  And we have definitely found a fun activity for our future visitors to Maine!!  We also made it to a delicious Buffet dinner that was only $10.95 a person!  We vowed to return later that week!

On Sunday Andee and I brought our visitors to our wonderful Church in Maine, and they loved it!  It was great for them to experience something that they had heard so much about already!  After church, we visited a chocolate factory home to the World's only life size Chocolate Moose!  Weighing in at 1.700 pounds of pure milk chocolate, "Lenny" was quite the sight to see!  He was also surrounded by 3 dark chocolate bears, which were very cute!  Of course we took pictures!!  We finished off the day with a game of bowling, a little more shopping, and a delicious dinner at Olive Garden!  A great Maine day!

On Monday, while Andee was in school, we took it easy and made our way to the movies to see "The Vow", and really enjoyed it!  It was a pretty cold day, so we stuck to indoor activites for the remainder of the day, going out for dinner in the evening, Dunkin Donuts, and some additional claw machine madness!  I am embarrassed to say that the blind lady beat us all, coming up with the most total animals!  I will have to practice for her return in April!

Tuesday, Valentine's Day, was the last full day for our visitors, and so I decided to take them sightseeing around Portland while Andee was at school!  We saw beautiful coastlines, shores, beaches, and lighthouses, true to Maine's typical tourist sights!  It was a little bit colder than I would have liked close to the shore with the wind chill, but once we were far enough away from the ocean we really enjoyed the beauty of Maine!  I will have to re-visit these beautiful locations on a warmer day in the future with Andee!  The four of us also enjoyed a wonderful Valentine's Day Buffet dinner, which was delicious!

On Wednesday I had to drop off my Mom and Anne at the airport, but not before we made a couple stops at Dollar Tree and IHOP!  Both were wonderful, and we had a great time!

Overall, it was amazing having visitors from home join us in our new and temporary life in Maine!  We hope for more visitors soon!!