My new favorite picture, of ones I have taken recently is below. LG, Ra, and I played at the park for a while after dropping the big girls off. I took several pictures, but this is the coolest, artistically. There are awesome kid pics too, including one of BG and one of MG tanned and happy after a week at camp.

This is Ra in the forefront, then LG on the tank, with the flagpole next to her. This park is called Patton Park, as the General’s family lives in that town. They also have 2 cannons at the other entrance, but no pics of those today.

I’m so sorry dear blog readers, I never intended to have so long between posts. Time really flies sometimes!

For part of the time I was gone I went to Connecticut and helped my Nana and Grandpa Bob.  I helped with food, some cleaning, and general moral support.  I was also at my other Nana’s house, choosing what I wanted to keep for momentos, and helping my Aunt and cousin get everything organized for a tag sale.  The tag sale’s first day should be finishing now, I’ll need to call them soon to find out how it went.

The picture at the right is of a Tiger Lilly (right?) from my Nana’s garden. It got really overgrown in the past few years, but there are some great pics starting here. I have so many memories tied to that house, it will be very hard when it is gone.

It’s been an emotional rollercoaster, because just as this stuff was going on, I had a conference call with the doctor involved in my book deal, and everything is finalized!!! We need to sign the agency agreement and the contract, and then we are good to go. Wow. This is really going to happen!

The two older girls spent last week with my mom & step-dad going to camp on an island, and they are returning for another week Sunday. LG and I will amuse ourselves, and I will try to write a lot.

Life is feeling very crazy here, and I am swamped. I need to breathe. But now I can check off “update blog”. There are plenty of other checkoffs that need to happen though, so keep an eye out for further updates as events warrant.

Oh - if you are actually reading this on Saturday July 26, there’s an awesome shirt my friend Zenne did over at tee fury. She drew a pic of BG earlier this year, and is a fantastic artist. This shirt is only available for 24 hours (so until midnight edt tonight), and then she will see if she can get it printed elsewhere. We love Thor in this house, so it’s special to us

I’ve been trying to come up with a great title or a great entry. But I’m too excited.

Yesterday was one of the Best Days Ever.

Started with finally finding the connector between my iPod and laptop. With all the traveling I’m doing it’s becoming more important.

That happiness was quickly surpassed when I got an email and phone call from my Literary Agent. Squeeeeee! The dairy-free book that was discussed months and months ago based on some of my recipes is finally going through!!! It will be finished by mid-December. Eeeeep!

My mind is reeling. I’m far too excited. I was jumping up and down and squealing a lot. Then got to have Baja Fresh for dinner, and a couple fizzy lemonades to celebrate.

I also have 2 moderately successful shirt.woot derby entries - a puppy in the top 25 and heart balloons in the top 40. If you’ve ever bought anything from woot, you can vote.

To top off the day, I ended up getting a bag of crap from woot!

No way another day can compete! But here’s hoping for another good one, with plenty for me to squeal about and giving my grandmothers something else to brag about.

I was named one of the top 100 female bloggers by the nice guy over at enkay blog.

I’m really thankful and grateful to be included with some wonderful female bloggers. and #72 is a good showing!

I just had a few people email me and IM me because my area of the country is in the news again.

The Gloucester Pregnancy Pact was bad enough. Now some teenagers from another local town entered floats in the 4th of July parade “satirizing” the pregnancy pact and going too far. This is a parade with little kids. You’ll want to pay attention to minutes 2-3 and 5-7.

I’m all for free speech and free expression, as well as enjoying a good phallic image, but sometimes the context makes things incredibly inappropriate. Yeesh - what were the parade organizers thinking?

Edited to add: another sexually-oriented article about my state - I was IM’d this link and told to have a good time on Cape Cod. lol

So, I’ve started listening to more music, having friends suggest songs that I might like. Having a working iPod is probably a part of listening to more music, as is having headphones that don’t hurt my head.

If you’ve ever dealt with Lyme or even if you just like songs about getting to know someone, check out these lyrics to a song called Ticks, and then you can blame someone who isn’t me when you find yourself downloading country music.

I’ve had to borrow neighbors’ wifi a few times, and have searched for free wifi (the city of Worcester, MA has free wifi for some cool reason, if you’re ever there for a bus layover), you’ll have noticed how incredibly dull most network names are. If you’re looking to rename your wifi, check out these suggested names.

I’m trying to see more movies, and a friend recommended old movies. TNT had sent me some information on old family-friendly movies they are running on Sunday evenings, so I’m checking those out with the kids. But the ones I really want to see are the pre-Code movies, movies before the rating system was created.

Am I the last person to discover meebo? it’s great having all of my chat programs in one place. makes it easier to keep chat windows open, too. I have to watch out and not send things to the wrong people, though…. if you want to reach me I’m mia3mom on google talk & yahoo, imacmomR on aim. I seem to have gotten past my instant-messaging phobias

In other news, there are a couple new recipes floating around, and expect some more this week as I test a new recipe or two. Couple new reviews coming, too. yay!

There are days when I get annoyed about where we live. In the winter, when we’re isolated due to snow. Or when the rain and tides threaten to wash out our causeway, I get nervous.

But then there are hot days when living a few minutes from the beach is fabulous. And then there are days like the 4th. There’s a beautiful beach that we can see from our beach, and it’s well known in the area. Unlike our beach, though, you need to ay to get in, and while it’s almost free for residents, it’s still a bit of a drive to get there. They also have a 4th party with music, face painting, etc and fireworks. This costs money, and we’re cheap frugal.

So the girls camped out with blankets on the lawn, and I had one of the lawn chairs. We watched the neighbors’ fireworks for about 45 minutes, and then the “real” fireworks lasted for about the same length of time. It was beautiful!

We could see a ton of legal and illegal fireworks, all without leaving our yard. It was great, and our 5th year doing this. We had friends over 2 years ago, and should really invite people next time. The wind was just right this year, so we could hear the music from the other beach.

Now we’re relaxing and enjoying the weekend. B took Monday off, so we have some nice quiet time before everything gets hectic again! 2 more weeks of kids here before camp starts, so lots of memories to collect and store in their heads!

We spent a few hours at the beach yesterday, and managed to pick a time when it wasn’t horribly busy. The girls had a great time, and the newest pictures start here.

There was a lot of scavenging yesterday - BG and MG dug for clams (score - BG 6, MG 1), and then stuck their clams back in the sand since we don’t have a clamming license. And yes, the shellfish police check for that.

Meanwhile, LG spent time collecting shells, and making sure they got properly rinsed off.

After the clam & shell scavenging was completed, the girls searched for crabs, collecting a few of the best ones, but were forced to let them go at the end of the day. Missing from that pic is this awesome spider-looking crab, complete with tortoise-shell markings.

They finished the day making a sand castle with their friends, and then were forced to come home to get ready for dinner.

We left only footprints, and brought home memories, pictures, and a big bunch of shells. Looking forward to another day at the beach and the joys of collecting and scavenging.

I just came back from a nice trip to visit my mother’s mother for her 86th birthday. I had a wonderful time, and it was so good to see her doing well, and to see how she and her husband (93) take care of each other. While I was there, I also visited my father’s mother, who is 90 and in an assisted living apartment in the same town.

My mom and step-dad drove me down to CT along with the girls, so the girls were able to visit with both Nanas, which was wonderful for everyone. It was really heartening for me to see my Nanas looking well, they loved seeing the girls, and the girls were reassured by seeing the Nanas I had been worried about.

So, without further ado, pics - the 4 generations of women in my mom’s family on the left, and MG with my dad’s mom on the right

If your grandparents are living, try to spend some time with them this long weekend. If they aren’t living but your children have grandparents, see if you can help solidify that grandparent-grandchild bond. It’s a special gift. If you don’t have any grandparents available, share some stories with your children, and give them a special treat. My girls always get ice cream at their Nani’s house!