I discovered "light cream" at this coffee shop. My dream just came true! No seriously, I have been looking for a cream that tastes like this since I left glorious England in 2007. I haven't been able to find one with the same creamy sweetness and resolved that it did not exist in the US. Alas, it does here at my coffee shop in Maine. Glee.

Girl Wakes Up to Light House Horn Instead of Train Whistles

It is wierd. My family moved 9 times and I think 7 of those 9 homes where next to RR tracks. I can sleep through train whistles better than anyone I am quite sure. But now I wake up to- what is this? A light house horn?! And I am growing accustomed to hearing boat whistles throughout the day. That and the siren that means the bridge next to my house is raising or lowering to let a boat pass under. Guys, my house is right on the harbor! I can see it through the trees from the front yard and the back! Delight. I have never experienced anything like this before.
Yesterday, a sweet sweet and quite funny lady from church took me out for fish and chips and beach strolling. It was wonderful! And we drove up and down the coast and just talked about life and faith and New England weather. Tonight, Chris and I are going down to Hampton beach to see the sand sculptures and then we are going to an outdoor musical at Prescott Park! It is a grassy theater on Strawbery Bank, the old part of town where the 400 year-old house/museums are! It is called Strawbery Bank because of all the wild strawberries that grew there, why they misspell it, I don't know. Anyway, we are taking a picnic basket and sitting on a blanket to watch Grease! Wait, I don't have a basket- maybe it'll be a shopping bag. I have a pot shortage wihch is super fun for cooking. I have a small skillet for eggs and one piece of meat at a time and I have one pot. So I have a system now: make the pasta while cooking the meat, strain pasta and store in collinder (try to keep warm by keeping in microwave), quickly clean pot, add and cook beans... haha. not bad.

So, cooking hasn't been as big of a nightmare as I feared it would be. I married a big man and he eats a lot of food. ha and he has complimented me so far.
Dinner 1: LemonGarlic Chicken with greens and penne pasta
Dinner 2: Chicken Fried Steak, mashed potatoes, corn
Lunch: Left over chicken- grilled and tossed with lettuce, croutons, and ranch dressing (from a packet, not a bottle =way better) served with red grapes and apple slices
Dinner 3: Sliders! mini cheeseburgers and tots! So fun oh so fun.
Lovely Laura made me an AMAZING cook book!! It is amazing and it is homemade and it is beautiful and it makes me very happy and she is beautiful and she brings me much joy and i love her. It will arrive here on monday with the Uhaul trailor and it will be splendidly helpful.
This man is amazing. He is so giving. He thinks of me first and that makes me feel so good. Dang, how did I snag this one?
Now for grocery shopping. Coupons! bye.

Merry Old Maine where it is 40 degrees cooler than it is in Texas.

Yeah, I'm wearing a sweater. So right now I am sitting in a coffee shop called "Breaking New Grounds" in Market Square of downtown Portsmouth. oh wow, you would love this town. I walked across this bridge from which i could see things like this and this . Then I walked by things like this and this . Right now, out the bay window in which I am sitting, I see this and this .

This place is incredible. It is so old. For a girl who has grown up in big, spread-out, and relatively new Texas almost all her life, a 400 year old town with streets and allies that were designed for horse&buggies and taverns with low creakey rafter ceilings and doorways that require ducking to get through (well, I don't have to duck, but normal height people do) and so many bicycles is a big change. My house is 100 years old. I was surprised at myself- when I stepped into the house on Saturday evening, I almost immediately started crying. Actually being here and realzing that I am not leaving this time was a little shocking and overwhelming. He held me a while and then told me to put on a pretty dress that he had given me and took me out to a nice dinner down town. Sunday, got up for church this morning. I love his church. I'm super excited about going there- it is so service oriented and people stayed for like an hour talking after church- hah I think I heard once that you can tell the health of a church by how long it takes people to go home. I'm surprised- there are actually alot of people here our age. That is nice.


The honeymoon was amazing! Perfect. exhausting but perfect. The Gaylord was super nice and he was so sweet to me. In the morning, he got this huge roomservice breakfast and ate it in our complimentary robes on the balcony. hehe. In Memphis, we went to the is fabulous live music joint on old, birth-fo-the-blues Beale Street and listened to some blues music from an cute old man band. This hilarious rickity old black singer led the band. He wore a suit and sunglasses even though it was a dark bar. haha. He would get out a tamberine every once in a while and shake his whole body with it and tell silly silly stories while the big bald base player picked in the background.
Day two, we drove through northern alabama where it is much hillier than you think. Day three was absolutely the best day ever-- okay so we get up in the morning at this splendid bed and breakfast on a 100 acre farm and the the British host makes us a lovely meal and then asks with his British accent. "Would you like to ride the horses?" Yes. haha. So- we were shocked- he just introduces us to Chili and Rooster and says "be back in an hour and be sure to close the gate." OKAY! haha so Chris and I went riding through some woods, around a chicken coup, and across gorgeous rolling hills covered in yellow flowers and we ran! Our hourses must have been giddy- so they just wanted to canter and canter and we didn't mind. (we both worked in horse barns growing up so we knew what we were doing- ha.) it was so amazing. I never expected him to just let us go out like that. THEN!!! we left the farm and drove to two 25 foot waterfalls. (i'll post pics later) and cliff jumped off like 20 ft cliffs next to the falls and we swam all around there in and through the canyon. wowowowow! Whoda thunk that was in Alabama? not me.

Yea so then we headed to Charleston SC and that was really romantic and we went to the beach in the rain and now one was there but us and we danced and watched a lightning storm. And then ate a pretty dinner in pretty downtown.
After that, we drove up the Blue Ridge parkway, a beautiful winding road across the ridges of the appalachians and then to DC where we met up with his best man and that made for a nice break. we explored the city and some museums and then made our way to Philidelphia then to HERE! Whoop.

Oh my wedding was so beautiful! I am going to post pictures of the wedding later too!! When people asked me, I said, "This is the most beautiful wedding that I have ever been to AND IT IS MINE!" Wow. Oh I love it. Post comments- I have a fear of loneliness. Heather