I kicked off the weekend by photographing another beautiful wedding! Abbey is a Ultimate Frisbee teammate from college and I was thrilled to photograph her and Jason's special day! Congrats you two!! This week (and next) was all about family! We knew we would want to set aside a good chunck of time to do fun summer things with both of our families before we left so Sunday Kim & I headed up to Avon to join her family for a couple days. We were sure to make a stop at Smalls Falls, one of the best watering holes in the area, a favorite of ours. Robin (Kim's mom) and I took a day to go shopping in North Conway. It was a blast spending time with her and getting all sorts of goodies for Myanmar. The rest of the time was spent laughing and lounging : ) After a quick stop home we packed the car back up and headed to Vermont. My Aunt and Uncle have a camp in Grafton, VT where they hold a weekend long gathering every July 4th. It is a fantastic time to see my extended family (the only time in the year we get to see them usually) as well as have a blast!! There were town parades, bingo, lawn games, fires, lots of rain, and (of course) fireworks!! Happy Independence Day all!
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While Kim was up visiting her parents on Saturday I went off to have a breakfast date with Katie over in Oxford. I then went over to a house on Range Pond to photograph a small and intimate wedding. It was a quiet afternoon with a potluck BBQ, and children running all around. For Amy & Chris I don't think they would have wanted anything different. On Saturday night we headed over to Meg's house where we invented a game called Adopt-A-Kitchen. It is a "TV Show" where Chef Kimmie goes into friend's houses and makes them dinner. She must make one beverage, one appetizer, and one entree by the end of the night. Part of the challenge is the Host's Choice items which must be included somewhere in the meal. Watch our version below for the fun the was had. A mini photo shoot was also had: Another beach day was held at Reid in the honor of Amanda's Birthday, but do we really need a reason to enjoy the long-awaited sunshine? I think not. We not only joined our family for a beach BBQ but also a group of friends for general beach shenanigans. It was a great day that was only made better by stopping at Lotus for Chinese food on the way home. Also, this is what happens when I leave my phone unattended. For payback I am posting all of these selfies from Sam & Drew as gifs for the world to see. Hehehe Monday I finally heard word back from ISM that they will be sending along our letters for our visas soon. I have been very anxious about getting the correct documentation from them so we can send out for our visas in DC so we can get them back in time before we go. With only 4 weeks until takeoff my stress has been running high mainly because I have not been able to get a hold of the ISM HR person that should have sent me the information weeks ago. We were planning on getting our visas before we go so we can fly directly into Yangon, making it easier on the pets. Even though we found out last week that we could not bring Ellie, we were still planning on bringing my Maine Coon Cat, Macy. When I got the note from ISM stating that they are working on my documentation we decided that it was time to purchase our plane tickets. Of course the flight itinerary that I had picked out and gotten approved was no longer available but I was able to find one very similar to it. After a call to my bank for them to up my daily spending limit on my debit card, I finally had our plane tickets purchased. I printed out the itinerary, receipts, and forms for Macy to have filled out at the vet later that day. This was exactly 31 days before we were set to leave and in order for Macy to be ready she needed certain shots done at least 30 days before flying so we were defiantly cutting it close. I then proceeded to call the airlines to inform them that we would be having a cat fly with us in the plane. The first airline was absolutely no problem (the one that would take us from Portland to JFK). The second one is where it became difficult. I got another very fast-speaking representative that easily took all of my information on our flights and Macy. He then proceeded to tell me the maximum detentions of the pet carriers that were allowed on the plane, I quickly scribbled these down and finished our conversation about baggage fees. After I got off the phone I looked at the dimensions of the carrier that he gave to me, they were in metric so I converted them into inches: Hight 8" - Width and Length 12" Hu? That seemed really small to me so I dug out my ruler and tried to invasion a carrier that small. I then tried to look online for one that small but it was hard to tell how Macy would actually look in them. Off I went to PetCo hoping that they would have small carriers for me to see in person, but they don't even carry them that small. And here it was, we had come all this way with our months of research only to find out that they only let mini cats fly in the planes. Seriously, who has a cat that is that tiny and not a kitten? With Macy's vet appointment drawing closer I had to make the decision and with everything in mind I realize that it simply was just not meant to be. This thought of course makes me extremely sad but there is no way I am stuffing Macy into a shoebox sized space for 25+ hours. I cancelled the vet appointment and began my search for a foster home for Macy. Now that we don't have a reason to fly directly into Yangon we will be traveling to Bangkok to meet up with the rest of my school and get our visas there the day before. I emailed ISM to inform them of the change and cancelled our plane tickets. I feel very defeated after fighting so hard and doing so much research for the past 5 months and to have it all come down to this. But alas, so it is. The rest of the week was spent packing and doing various moving related tasks, such as getting my wedding dress dry cleaned and packed away, and ordering our contacts for the next year. It seems that the more I pack the more messy the house gets. There is stuff everywhere but I am very happy to be purging items that have long been used. It feels so nice to have less things around, I wish I had been able to go through my things long ago. I know I will miss my things when we are away but it will also be nice not to be surrounded by stuff at ever turn. So far almost all of my boxes are either books or artwork. The many pieces of artwork have proved very difficult to pack up. I have a good number of oddly shaped ceramic objects (like my medusa below) that involved a great deal of bubble wrap and packing peanuts to ensure their safety. I hope that everything gets tucked away carefully. On Thursday Amanda came over and we made up her wedding invitations, we could not be happier with how they came out! Friday Amanda, Josh, Toothless, and I headed to Marche because it was Kim's very last day of work as the manager and head chef. From Kim:
My last day of work was sad yet happy all at the same time. A bunch of my regular customers came in to say goodbye and get one last meal made by me. They all wished me good luck, said they were going to miss me, and told me not to drink the water. I never saw myself working in an open kitchen (where the customers can see and talk with the chef and cooks) but now I know that when I have my own restaurant it is going to be an open kitchen for sure. I loved that the customers got to see how their food was made and all of the work going into it (and could tell that it wasn't just popped in a microwave). I didn't realize how much I loved interacting one on one with the customers, getting to know their names, their order preferences, and all about their lives. Joking and chatting with them as they came in made my job so meaningful and pleasurable. At the end of the day when I went over to turn my keys in I realized how much I learned while being at Marche and how it has made me grow as a chef and become a better person overall. I got to work under a great chef named Justin who taught me a number of skills that I will be taking with me wherever I end up. He was also the first chef to buy me my own professional chefs knife which means more to me than words can say. I will certainly miss Marche but I know that there are grand adventures to be had. It was Amanda's 20th Birthday on Friday so after dinner with my co-workers, Kim and I went over to her place to spend some quality time with her, Josh, Samantha, and India. Happiest days Amanda : ) Saturday I set off to Portland with Amanda, Samantha, India, and Rosie for Bridesmaids Dress Shopping. Andrea and Autumn met us at David's Bridal for our first round of dress trying-on. Amanda is getting married in October of this year on a beach in Kennebunk, Maine. Kim and I are hoping to make the trip back over for the wedding if it is possible with school schedules and finances, but either way I am happy to be a part of the wedding planning process. It was a long day with many options to take into consideration and we walked away without a winner but I'm sure we will find one soon. Here are some photos of the contestants. Father's Day was on Sunday so after dress shopping we headed straight up to Kim's parents house to spend the night with them. We had lobster and clams, drinks and a fire. Sunday we went over to my Dad's house where the family gathered for a noon time brunch. After we dug out the old photo albums and Dad shared stories with us of the old days. Kim and I are both so happy to be able to spend time with both of our families and very grateful to have two amazing Dads in our lives. Old family pics: Monday was my very last day of school. After the sixth grade "Step-up Breakfast" I was able to finish up a project I have been working on with the kids. Each year the 6th graders at Rowe leave their mark on the school via the 6th Grade "Tiles" Project. I give each student a square on the wall to paint to represent themselves and what they want future Rowe students to know about them. I love how unique each and every square turned out. It was very strange watching the students walking out of the school, mainly because it felt like every other day but at the same time I knew that this was the last time I will most likely see them. After a staff brunch, hugs, and goodbyes, I locked up my room for the last time. On Tuesday I met up with the new art teacher. Sarah is a very kind person who has been working in the school system for some time but has never had the opportunity to have an art classroom of her own. I was able to give her a tour of the room and school and fill her in on all of the amazing things that have been happening in the world of Art at Rowe. I hope that she is able to continue on some of my traditions (like the end-of-the-year art club lock-in) and start some fantastic ones of her own. I grabbed the few boxes I had packed up of my teacher things, passed on my keys, and walked out of Rowe for the last time. Wednesday brought one of my very least favorite things, going to see the dentist. I'm not sure why or when but at some point in my life I developed an intense, irrational fear of the dentist. Just talking about it, or hearing someone else's dentist story will bring tears to my eyes. Unfortunately I did have some work that I needed to get done on my teeth and I knew it needed to happen before I left so off I went to Falmouth Dental Arts. Luckily I found a group of very understanding and patient dental folks that worked with me to develop a plan that I could handle. I was able to be under conscious sedation for the procedure which left a lovely amnesia effect. I am so happy to know that my teeth are up to par for our leave and mainly happy to know that I will not have to go back for (hopefully) some time. The rest of the week involved swimming, lunch dates with Meg, going to the movies, and of course PACKING!!! We had to make a very big and difficult decision this week, one we have been fighting for months now. Ellie, our golden retriever will be staying here while we go to Burma. If you don't know us well you might be thinking "It is just a dog, not a big sacrifice for an amazing life experience," but that is not even close. Ellie is a part of our family, she makes us laugh, gives us comfort, and depends on us as her pack. I shed more than a couple tears over this but in the end know that it will probably be for the best. This is how we came about to our choice.
On Saturday Ellie and Macy were scheduled to have a vet appointment to get a check-up, their necessary shots, and a rabies antibody blood test, all necessary for them to travel with us. To get ready I called the airline on Wednesday to confirm that this was everything we needed. The very fast speaking representative went over all of the information with me and everything was looking good. In informed him that Ellie would be flying as an Emotional Support Animal (ESA) and asked him to double check the requirements for this to be sure we had everything in order. He agreed that we in fact had everything we needed to get her out of the country but then proceeded to tell me that she would not be considered an ESA at our layover in Soel, Korea. Once there she would need to ride underneath the plane in the cargo area. I was blown away that this fact never came up in any other conversation with the airline. Finishing our conversation I researched for some time with the Air Carrier Access Act and other airlines to find out if this was the norm. I also, emailed the airline to get a second opinion on the topic. Unfortunately all of the information came out being in line with what the representative had said. Ellie would only be recognized as an ESA on a flight to or from the US, as soon as we step off the first plane she is just any other animal. Kim and I had been doing all of this work because we have heard the horror stories of animals not making it to their destination. Many animals die in the cargo area due to the extreme heat that is unavoidable on the tarmac (while the plane is waiting to take off or waiting to unload). With even a small chance that Ellie would not make it to Burma it was not even a choice for us to take her over with us. Not being able to have our whole family with us has really been tearing us apart and began to sour us to the move. This is really unfortunate because until now we have only had one emotion: excited! Luckily we have an amazing family and Ellie will be staying with Kim's parents while we are gone. We are very grateful to have a home for her where we know she will be just as adored as she is with us. The weekend started out with celebrating my little brother, Drew's 14th birthday. Every year I let him pick an activity to do on his birthday and this year he decided to go to an amusement park. So off we headed to Six Flags New England for a day of thrills. After the four hour drive we were beyond excited to get on some rides. We got our jitters out on some small rides before we headed for one of the roller-coasters. Little did we know that Drew is afraid of roller-coasters. Yep. But that didn't stop us from having a blast jumping on and off different rides and hitting the water park. It was a great day and we were exhausted after. That didn't stop us from waking up early and heading to the beach to meet up with the family. The day was filled with grilling, ice cream cake, ocean exploring, and laughing. Although we decided to leave our phones and camera in the car at Six Flags we have plenty of photos from the beach. On Sunday Kim and I headed to one of our favorite festivals in Maine, the annual Old Port Fest. One Sunday a year they close down all of the streets in the Old Port (downtown Portland) and fill it up to the brim with vendors, stages with live music, Maine craftspeople, and lots of food! We spent the sunny, sunny afternoon seeing the sights and tasting the treats. I joined an old frisbee teammate to photograph her and her fiancé for their upcoming wedding. We met up on the Eastern Prom then headed to Portland Headlight to splash in the Andrew Wyeth-like waves. On Monday Kim had to go to the dentist to get some work done on her teeth. It was not fun but we are very glad to get it taken care of before we go. She was also able to get her very last round of shots done which means we are all vaccinated!!! Kim and I were able to join my family in watching Drew graduate from 8th grade. I simply cannot believe that he is going to be in High School next year eeeeeeeeeekk. I don't know what those HS teachers and administrators are going to do with him. June 10th came on Tuesday and with it our 4 year anniversary of when we met as well as our 1 month anniversary of our wedding. This past month has flown by but we could not be happier. We decided on an easy night of dinner out and visiting one of our most favorite lookout spots where we have had many dates. It was a lovely night to take a break and just enjoy being with each other. And a photo from just a couple months after we met : ) Before we knew it, it was Wednesday and we were back at it. It was Field Day at school which meant children running around having a blast all day. It is always fun to see kids be kids. Here is our annual Rainbow picture before the start of the day. I'm sitting on the playground. Thursday and Friday flew by and before I knew it I was watching my West Paris students walk out of the building for the last time and, arms loaded, I shortly followed. My last week of teaching elementary Art in Maine (at least for the next couple years). Still as I am writing this it doesn't seem real. I'm not sure when it will hit me, the fact that I will most likely never see any of the students that I have worked so closely with again. The students that I have laughed with, been inspired by, shared my passion with, the first children that I have truly called students of my own. I have been getting ready for this for a while now and there were times when it didn't feel like it was ever going to come but alas, it has ended. This is a letter I received from one of my dearest students: In each of my last classes I shared with the students where we will be headed. I put together this presentation to give them a bit of a feel for Myanmar and then I gave them time to ask whatever questions they had for me. These questions ranged from "When are you leaving?" to "Do they eat bugs?" - from "How are you getting there?" to "Are you afraid?" - from "Who is going with you?" to "How long will you be there?" It was a great time to be personal with the students who have challenged me and inspired me daily for the past two years. This is the presentation I shared with them: To end what was a very surreal and emotional week, my co-workers took Kim and me out to dinner on Friday night. In an echo of our many after-work drink dates, it was simply the perfect way to cap my time at Rowe. I'm going to miss my Rowe family, the students and fellow teachers who made my time at Rowe so meaningful. I kicked off the weekend with my Annual Art Club Lock-In. Friday night 20 of my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students joined me and two other chaperones for a night of art making and shenanigans. This event is truly the highlight of my teaching year, it allows me to connect with my most dedicated art students and celebrate what brings us together - ART! My youngest sister Autumn was able to join us for the night also! Saturday Kim joined Josh and his other groomsmen to get fitted for their tuxes to wear at Amanda and Josh's wedding ceremony. After a LONG nap on Saturday (the Art Club kids stayed up until 5am and I peeled them out of bed at 7am for family breakfast) Kim and I joined our friends Nikki and Katrina for their first bonfire of the summer. Sunday morning started with our (Kim's) famous tacos, breakfast style : ) We spent some time trying to track down answers for our many questions regarding getting the pets over to Burma. After being on hold for ever we finally got to talk to someone from Korean Air who told us that we in fact did not have to import the pets into Korea if we are only changing flights (as long as it is with the same carrier). WOOHOO! So we finally sent the itinerary to my school, I posted a screen shot below. It will be almost 30 hours in transit with only 4 of those being layovers. It is going to be a looooooooong journey that's for sure. To celebrate we got ourselves some FroYo from the new place in town : ) The warmer weather finally arrived on Monday when it got up to 85* out. To celebrate we had an impromptu swimming excursion with some of the family. Dad ran around and threw everyone in the water which was just warm enough to be comfortable. We ate pineapple, threw sticks for the dogs, and enjoyed thawing out after the brutal winter we have had. The rest of the week for me involved staying very late to grade a couple nights as well as attending a retirement gathering for my principal, George Sincerbeaux. A great leader, I could not have asked for a more supportive administrator to work with for the past two years. He is going to be very missed by everyone at Rowe. For Date Night this week we grabbed my little bro, Drew, and headed to a new Chinese food place in town. Set up with a buffet, we enjoyed tastes of a variety of our favorite oriental foods - including sushi!! We were very impressed with the quality and would defiantly return if the opportunity arose. While Kim was busy catering an event at work I was able to FINALLY start packing!! Although I didn't make it very far I managed to turn the house into shambles in the process. I doubt very highly that we will have a clean house ever again before we move. Since about 90% of the items in the house are technically mine it is going to be a lot of work on my part to go through everything and decide what needs to be packed for storage, what can be given away, and what few items will be going with us. We started thinking about what items we will be taking with us. We have decided not to ship anything over and just take what we can bring in suitcases on the plane with us. I have no idea how well this is going to work out but that is the plan right now. We have begun a packing list of items that we are going to bring with us. Right now it is no way complete but it is a start: Packing List |
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