Shane's newest clientele

Shane arrived at work to mother and baby moose checking out the deck furniture at Eased Edges! I think they might have to special order the size!

Shane's Official Sign of Summer

homemade cherry pie...'nuff said.

In other news...Oliver playing in a swing!

Memorial Day Parade

Monday morning Mom, Dad, Oliver, and I went to the Memorial Day Parade in Meredith. It was gorgeous weather for the "unoffical" beginning of summer.
ILHS Band

ILES Band-Jared Simpson is carrying the banner
We saw this girl at the parade...Marisa's long lost twin? I think so...
(to get a picture of her I had to pretend to take a picture of mom-pretty sneaky!)

Jessica and Shane; a brief background

1.What are your middle names? Jessica Bates and Shane Christian

2.How long have you been together? Since October 2004

3.How long did you know each other before you started dating? 1 month
4.Who asked who out? After a 4 hour walk together we ended the walk holding hands, so I think it was an assumed, mutual agreement

5.How old are each of you? Shane is 30 (he'll be 31 on the 13th!) and Jess is 22

6.What is your astrological signs? Shane is Gemini and Jessica is Pisces

7.Who's mother do you see the most? Jess' lives next door

8.Who’s siblings do you see the most? You'd think with 7 siblings we'd see mine more! But we see Shane's two sisters much more.

9.Do you have any children together? Sweet Baby Oliver

10.What about pets? We used to have to ferrets; Storm and Blizzard, but we had to give them to the SPCA when we moved into a no-pets apartment

11.What are their names? Oops...Storm and Blizzard

12.Did you go to the same school? Shane went to Franklin and PSU while Jess went to Inter-Lakes and UNH

13.Are you from the same hometown? Our hometowns are about 4 towns apart. Shane's is Franklin, Jessica's is Center Harbor

14. What town do you live in now? Center Harbor

15.Who is the smartest? We're both pretty smart little cookies. We both graduated from college cum laude

16.Who is the most sensitive? Definitely definitely Jessica

17.Where do you eat out most as a couple? Nice dinner out-Italian Farmhouse (Valentine's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, our wedding reception...)

Regular dinner out- Friendly's! Yum!

18.Where do you shop the most as a couple? Hannaford

19.Where is the furthest you have traveled together? After much research together, we figured out that it was, indeed, to Glasgow, Scotland (which is further than Mexico City)

(at the airport on our way to Glasgow)

20.Who has the best group of friends? Shane would say his, Jessica would say hers

21.Who has the craziest quirks? We're both pretty quirky people...and I will leave it at that...

22.Who has the worst temper? Definitely definitely Jessica

23.Who does the cooking? Definitely definitely Jessica...with a little help from Oliver!

24.Who is more social? We're both pretty social butterflies, we're just social in different circles of people.

25.Who is the neat-freak? BY FAR Shane

26.Who is the most affectionate? Shane

27.Who is the most stubborn? BY FAR Jessica

28.Who hogs the bed most? Oliver

29.Where was your first date? After some discussion we figured it was the 4 hour long walk we took around Newmarket. We got hot chocolate at Irving at about 4 am.

30.Love at first sight? Yes.

(OK, so this is after the first sight, but you can feel the love, can't ya!?)

31.Who said I Love You first? Shane. Jessica took about a month after he did to say it back. What can I say! I like to keep him on his toes!

32.Who has the bigger family? Jessica

(Jessica's siblings...she's the one in red holding her lip)

33. Do you give/get flowers often? Shaney boy surprises Jessica with flowers about once a month. She loves it!

(roses on Valentine's Day)

34.How do you spend the holidays? We are on a very strict schedule that alternates every year. Easter and Thanksgiving get swapped each year from the Sargent's to the Johnson's and Christmas morning is spent at the Johnson's and Christmas afternoon/evening is with the Sargents.

RFK Uproar

I'm sorry, but I was just reading an article about Hillary Clinton's RFK slip-up. All I can say is
1. people are looking for reasons to be offended
2. the media really is openly against this candidate
Now I do not support Hillary Clinton, she is not "my" candidate, but I think that every chance the media gets to show her in a bad light, they do.
It's just too bad that people have to behave this way.

One Word

I stole this from Becky Orton...feel free to steal it from me!

Answer the following with only one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? ....................kitchen

2. Your significant other?.......................awesome

3. Your hair?....................................blonde

4. Your mother? .................................friend

5. Your father?..................................spiritual

6. Your favorite thing?..........................Oliver

7. Your dream last night?........................wierd

8. Your favorite drink...........................water

9. Your dream/goal?..............................travel

10. The room you're in?..........................living...room

11. Your children?.....................................exersauser

12. Your fear?...................................family-less

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years...........kids kids kids!

14. Where were you last night?...................bedroom

15. What you're not?.............................quiet

16. Muffins......................................blueberry

17. One of your wish list items?.................CuisinArt

18. Where you grew up?...........................Australia (Center Harbor and New Hampshire are more than one word!)

19. What are you wearing?........................green

20. Your TV?.....................................nill

21. Your pets?...................................nill

22. Your computer? ..............................Alienware

23. Your life?...................................Oliver

24. Your mood?...................................happy

25. Missing someone?.............................seester

26. Your car?....................................ancient

27. Something you're not wearing?.....socks

28. Favorite Store?..............................Target

29. Your summer?.................................surprises

30. Like someone?................................mom

31. Your favorite color?.........................blue

32. Last time you laughed........................today

33. Last time you cried?.........................funeral

An Evening with Diane Rehm

For our two year anniversary Shane and I went to see Diane Rehm in the Lebanon Opera House. First of all, she looks and acts so much more vital than she sounds. For anyone who doesn't know who she is, Diane hosts her own show (The Diane Rehm Show) on NPR and about a decade ago she was diagnosed with Spasmotic Dysphonia so when she talks it is very slow, and she sounds like she's about 200 years old. But as she pointed out, this slowness of her speech really forces her guests and listeners to really listen and digest what is being said and not to just jump to the next comment. Diane has met so many influential people in the world, it was really great to hear a bunch of stories about her experiences.
I will say, though, that we were probably the youngest people there by about 40 years. I'm glad that we could "represent" her younger listenership, and that all the oldies knew that there are young people out there that listen to her as well. I wanted to ask her a question, because half of the evening was devoted to asking her questions, but the people with the microphones were not using their brains that evening. An example...for the last questions, Diane shouted "A woman! A woman! We've only heard from one, get a woman!" so what do they do? Hand the microphone to a man! They promptly took it away and gave it to a woman when they snapped back to their senses but it was very frustrating. We were sitting in the very last row (by choice) so the odds of me getting my question in were quite slim! We sat in the back because we brought Oliver with us so we wanted to be able to dash to the exit if he decided he didn't want to be there anymore. He was a complete angel, though! It really was a blessing; for all of you that have seen him in church and have seen how he can't get through the first half hour with out being taken out, he made it through the entire hour and a half!
To conclude, I would really encourage everyone to listen to The Diane Rehm Show on NPR daily from 10-12. The first hour is political, the second hour she interviews authors, doctors, artists, etc. On Fridays is the Friday News Roundup which is a good way to get your week's worth of news in a a two hour block!

Oh third graders...

This is a "free write" that one of my mom's students wrote. $100 for who ever can make sense of this!


"Some things can be long and
some things can be short.
But some things can be long and
short or some things are supost
to be long and some things
are supost to be short.
But some times it can
be a family tree that can
be long or it can be a family
tree that can be short.
But that dosen't mean
that you can make fun of
them. Don't laugh at them
ether so don't be cryer or
a hater or make fun of ether.
So don't be a bully.

BK Loaded Steakhouse Burger

Loaded Steakhouse Burger ________Recommended Intake
cal 970 ______________________2,000kcal
fat 55 _______________________40-60g
satfat 22 _____________________>10% of daily fat
transfat 2 ___________________as little as possible
chol 155 ______________________>300mg
sodium2190___________________ 2300mg
carb 63 _______________________45-65% of daily kcals
fiber 5 _________________________35g
sugar 12 ______________________10% of kcals
protein46 ______________________?g
weight in g 339

So yeah, I'm feeling pretty gross right now. But somehow it was totally worth it. Oh, I'm such an American!

For some reason I can not for the life of me find a picture of this burger online, so I will describe it...
A huge burger patty, American cheese, bacon, steak sauce, fried onions, mashed potatoes, chives, and bacon bits! It took me a half an hour to eat it! I don't know if I'll get it again anytime soon, but it definitely satisfied my craving!

My little Wildcat

Many thanks to Misha for this romper from my Alma Mater! Now we just have to get him to pose with the wildcat statue!(puke)

Congrats to Shane!

Just in case you can't read what that says, it is Shane's acceptance letter into the Masters program for IT at Southern New Hampshire University! Hopefully in a year and a half's time Shane will have a graduate degree in Information Technologies. Congrats Shane, I'm so proud of you!! I know you'll do great!

Signs of spring

The daffodils have come and gone but there are plenty of other beauties in the yard!

Mother's Day

I had a lovely, carefree first Mother's Day thanks to my wonderful hubby. He made me breakfast in bed and took care of Oliver for the whole day (except for feeding, of course!) He also did a bbq for me and my parents. I was able to relax by the pool with mom for the afternoon and even take a nap with Oliver! Shane's family even popped by to say hello, it was a nice surprise. To finish it all off Shane gave me a star gazer lily, it is absolutely gorgeous, I'm excited to plant it in the garden!

Ham, eggs, cinnamon rolls, and OJ! Yum!

The best mom spending time with the best son!
I love being a mom!

Oliver's 6 month birthday!

OK, maybe we're just sentimental, maybe we like to eat cake too much, and its probably just because this is our first child, but we celebrated Oliver's 6 month birthday on Friday. Its hard to believe that a. this little guy has been with us for 6 months and b. that its only been 6 months! I'm sure all mothers out there know what I'm talking about. Mom and Dad came over to have cake with us and they even brought presents! They got him two extremely cute books, Russell the Sheep and Good Boy, Fergus. It was a great night and I am proud to say that I have now exclusively breastfed for 6 months! (I'm actually nursing as I type!)

Yummy tomato basil pizza for dinner!

Oliver pining for some cake
I love my baby!
Grandparents arriving and being goofy (Dad's holding ice cream, mom has the present)

Oliver's New Trick

Two days ago Oliver started holding his chest up! He still can't roll over, but by golly I think he could get up and crawl soon! (I dreamed that he did!)

He also got his two bottom teeth in this week, but its pretty hard to get a picture of those little toothies! This was my attempt...not too successful...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MA SARGENT! YOU'RE THE BEST MOTHER-IN-LAW A GIRL COULD ASK FOR!!!