Blue Hill Christmas 2009

Abby Thibodeau


Jayne Thibodeau


Hilary Thibodeau

Emily Thibodeau

Jeff Thibodeau, Nick Thibodeau, Greg Thibodeau

15 ft. Christmas Tree

Christmas Snowfall in Houlton

Interstate 95 in Island Falls... after the snow.


24-hour snowfall in Houlton.

Becky's Golden Birthday...

Becky celebrated her 27th Birthday on Nov. 27th. Ruby choose a front row seat in case Mom needed help blowing out the candles.


Scott, Becky and Ruby


Sometimes it's hard to find a smile... huh, Ruby?

Ruby's First Thanksgiving...

Ruby smiling for the "Pep"arazzi...


Ruby with Nonie Laura...


Showing off her pink Uggs from Australia...

Thanksgiving Day...

Hmmm. Where to begin? Organic, free-range, never-frozen turkey, smashed russet potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, baby carrots, fiddlehead, bread stuffing, cranberry dressing, artichoke and spinach dip, grilled portabella mushrooms with cheese and spinach.
Becky, Ruby and Scott
Laura, Jayne, Hilary, Greg, Abby and Emily


Auntie Abby with a little butterball.


Cousin Hilary and Miss Ruby

Auntie Em, telling jokes to Ruby-doo.

Oui, Wii... it's me!

No story... just a picture of my Wii Mii. A good likeness.... don't ya think?

(Thanks to the artistry of my niece, Sadie.)

In this image, I'm in the 'remedial' golf class, but I'm getting better... more or less... (more less than more.)

Napa Valley Saturday drive...

To my surprise, several vineyards I passed yesterday had yet to be harvested. The grapes have begun to loose their moisture and are on their way to becoming raisins. I wonder if these grapes were deemed unsuitable and left on the vine?

Or perhaps they're for a sweeter, post-frost havested blend of wine? I was tempted to sample a small handful. (Surely no one would notice this vine was a few grapes short?) But I thought, better not...




Golden rolling hills of California flank the vineyards of the Napa Valley.

On the west coast...

Busy preparing new budgets for TREMS... so I've been too lazy to post new pics :-/ Fortunately my sister Lise doesn't mind hosting me while I'm on the west coast so I've got a cozy spot to work from for the next few weeks. (The photos below were taken last January, but hey, it city still looks the same!)

I did go see the King Tut Exhibit at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park a week ago. 180 artifacts on display from the Valley of the Kings. 50 items from King Tut's tomb. I enjoyed the exhibit greatly. I had just finished the book "The Murder of King Tut" by James Patterson and Martin Dugard so I had a good handle on names, places and Tut's lineage.

Ruby's Baptism

Mom Becky (my daughter), Ruby and Deacon Joe LaPlante


Deacon LaPlante, parents Scott and Becky with Ruby and godparents, Jessica and Rich


'Nonie' Laura, Scott's parents 'Pepere' Gary and 'Memere' Janet LaBonte,
Scott, Becky, Ruby and Me (Pep)


Auntie Abby (my daughter) and her mom, Laura.


Auntie Emily (my daughter) with her Uncle Greg (my brother)


Uncle Ben (my son), Auntie Casey (Zoe's Mom) with Aunt Jayne (my sister-in-law)

Lunch with Zoe...

I enjoyed a baby spinach salad with lightly grilled portabella mushroom and a hot cup of tea, while my littlest lunch guest sampled from everyones plate before giving the smashed sweet potatoes the thumbs-up!

Mom (Casey) savored baked haddock, which she asserted to our precious Zoe was 'chicken.' "Really, try a bite of chicken, honey." (She was not fooled!) And she also saw right through the quackery when "Dad" (Ben) insisted his soup and sandwich entree included 'pasta'. This adorable two-year-old was much too smart for any of their shenanigans!

Ben, Casey, Zoe, Emily and I enjoyed lunch at Geddy's - Bar Harbor locals spot for good eats.

I know... I know... you're saying "But where's a picture of Ben or Casey or Emily... right? Well, as the resident paparazzi (dubbed: 'Pep'arazzi by Becky,) I was distracted by this cute little starlet... ;-)

Ruby's Room

Before...

After... All new... from ceiling to floor!

When the home was originally built 35 years ago, the homeowners installed wallpaper in the room. Some years down the road they decided to remove the old paper and put up something contemporary ('contemporary' in the 'relative' sense...) When we started to remove the wallpaper we discovered that the bare sheetrock underneath had never been painted!! And, the two layers of wallpaper paste was stuck to the paper of the sheetrock. It was a big job to scrape and sand off as much as possible of the old wallpaper paste. Yeah, Scott!

The next step was to spackle the entire room, fixing dings and divots and countless nail holes, etc. The walls were not properly 'mudded' in 1975... the rationale being, they were covering the walls with busy, forgiving wallpaper! It took four 'coats' of drywall spackle to get the wall level enough to paint.

Painting was three layers... 1. BIN to seal the wall, 2. White Eggshell Finish Latex, and finally the light green final coat in the images below and above. The ceiling also received two coats of paint.

Finally, it was decided that we would not reinstall the dark stained window trim and baseboards, and chose to finish the room in new white trim. (We decided to keep the entry door original as all the doors off the first floor hallway are dark stain.)

Well... you can't have a new room without a new floor... can you? Scott and I (with a good deal from Marden's) installed a Pergo laminate floor which looks great!

New, bypass closet doors completes the room!

(This will be Ruby's Room, but Scott and Becky will use it while their room is being renovated.)

Before...

After...

Ruby :-)

Before and after...

Before...


... and After.

Bathroom painting project is complete!

Ruby and... friend?

Hey... :-( ! Who invited you (Nimitz) to be in my picture?

High Five for Uncle Ben!

I can't wait to see you Uncle Ben!


(Also... I can't wait to eat again!)


Click on my picture... I'm pretty cute :-)

Ruby

Common Ground Fair