Home

I don't want this to seem negative toward the other places I've lived, the family I've been close to there, and the other friends I have made (because of love them all), but I have realize that I AM HOME. Maine is my home. I am here and I hope we are both here to stay. I am so happy with life-I love our house, I really like my job, I'm relatively stress free, my cats are happy and losing weight because they get so much exercise around the house, Robert hasn't complained about being hot for weeks, I've managed to workout regularly for the past few weeks, the weather is PERFECT...the list goes on and on...but the thing that makes me happiest about being back in Maine is that I get to see my friends all the time! I love it...and I wanted to share some of the more awesome photographic moments from the past month of being truly Home:

Friday Memories...

I haven't done this one for a while, but I thought I needed to make a little note here. I've been traveling for a bunch of training sessions for doors and windows since I started at Lowes in Brunswick and one of those trips took us through Lewiston/Auburn. It was the weirdest feeling to be driving up 196 like I used to when I went up there to go to school 3 times a week. It really hasn't changed much, but the funny thing was that it wasn't scary for me anymore. I used to stress so much about driving in Lewiston-especially in the winter time. I also used to think the town was so ugly, which it is, but I had such a different perspective as a visitor. Of course, the main drag of 196 going into downtown Lewiston is still the most getting 4 lane inhabited road that you can ever drive on, but downtown really isn't all that bad anymore. We drove by the mill that I used to go to CPACM (I don't remember what the letters stand for anymore, but that was the name of my photography school) and it looked just the same...except I had totally forgotten about the AWESOME Italian restaurant that was downstairs! GOD they had some good pizza. I had also totally forgotten about the Country Kitchen bread factory that is right there downtown and I flashed back to walking out of the building at 10pm to the awesome smell of fresh baking bread...mmmmm. Yum.
I've been running into these little memories all over the place, but don't have enough presence of mind to remember all of them, so I wanted to get this one.:) College wasn't all just long drives, late nights, ghetto parking, and slightly bad teaching, was it?

Emma Faith turns 1!

Emma's FIRST BIRTHDAY!
What a milestone in our lives! I can't believe that Emma is all ready 1 year old! I cried when I saw these photos that Holly shared with us from the last few months and had to post them! Oh, I love being an aunt-even watching from afar...

Area Code 207 featuring The Loblolly Boy and Bearkat!

Hey all! Just in case everyone didn't know Luke and Katy were on our local NBC station here in Maine last week! AND the show, "207", has a website you can go and watch their performance on! How cool is that? So, hopefully this link will work. Check it out!

Luke and Katy on 207



I'm so proud of my brother (and my Uncle Josh who managed to get him this gig)!

E-mail update...#3?

I'm going to try to remember to put my update e-mails in here too-just to keep track of them. I Hope this blog lasts forever!
Here goes:

Yes, Yes, yet another update from Lane...if you are getting annoyed just let me know and I will delete you from my mailing list...or you can just delete my e-mails when they are too boring.:)
I was driving home from work tonight and I had a few thoughts that I wanted to put down:
1) Rain in Maine is so very different from the South. I knew when I left that rain would be one of the things I would miss the most about the South because it is just so BIG there. Here rain is most often some sort of mist or very small raindrops that make no real sound. I didn't know it was raining today until about 8pm because I couldn't see it (because I am in the back of the store now) and because it didn't rain hard enough to hear on the roof until then. In the South you knew it was raining because you could barely talk over the sound that it made on the roof at Lowes 712! Also, driving home in the rain here is much more difficult-not as many street lights, with winding, hilly roads and lots of invisible puddles and pot holes...just a whole different experience. Granted, there aren't any other people on the road here at 11pm, so I could drive in the middle of the road and no one would really care, right?
2) One thing that made me so proud working at Lowes 712 was that the majority of the department managers were women. Lacey and I were the first FEMALE Dept Manager/Team Leader pair at our store and from then on the women just started taking over. It had to have been at least 70/30 to the women with the department managers at Lowes 712, which was AWESOME. Here in Maine it's just me and the Administrative Dept. Manager who are women and the rest are men. All men Zone Managers too. I didn't actually realize it when I was sitting in the Department Manager meeting this week, so I guess I'm not intimidated by it, but I just find it strange to be in the minority again. Another funny thing is that I realized this because I was thinking about how odd it was that all the department managers in the store wear polo shirts and how I need to get some more so I don't look icky next to them...THAT is when I realized they were all men.:) So, really, I am proud to be one of the few female managers in the store-especially in a "man's" department. And, yes, I'm still really enjoying Millworks (Doors and Windows, for those who don't visit Lowes often)...I'm learning how to lift doors and trying to get used to the idea of picking up whole pallets of leaning doors...the rest of it I really enjoy, though...except the fact that each department takes a turn at cleaning the bathrooms (Lowes 712, ya'll better be VERY thankful for Ms. Delores): my first night was tonight and, well, I'm glad it only comes twice a month! I get paid less as a department manager than when I cleaned cottages for a summer...but I'm still cleaning bathrooms. Funny how that is, huh?:)
3) The most exciting thing at the moment is that Robert has made progress on his side of things. We finally got his truck back and fixed (yeah)! And he immediately headed down to VA to pick up our little trailer with our riding lawnmower in it. He made it without anything major happening...except that the GPS reconfigured my settings and sent him through NYC (instead of North of it by way of I-84) where he promptly got lost and let the GPS turn him around a few times before he got out. I had the great fortune of calling him in the middle of this dilemma too.:) Luckily, everything else worked out perfectly and he made it back the next day with our trailer and lawnmower safe and sound. Robert has also gone out to explore and made some new friends at a local bar called Riverside. I haven't been there yet, but I'm glad he's getting comfortable here all ready. He'll start looking for jobs next week (there's a job fair in Portland on Monday) and we'll see where things go from there!
Life is good in this lovely state, spring is on it's way, and we are slowly getting settled in. Sometimes I still can't believe that we are really here to stay: when I drive through Damariscotta on the way to Mom's and I see people I know walking on the streets it just feels like a strange dream...I even have people I know come into my Lowes (which is about 30 minutes from Damariscotta) and you should see the looks on their faces when they realize it's me!

So, once we get the last bit of furniture from our very giving relatives and I get the last few things set up I am going to start calling all those friends who I know are here somewhere but never return my calls or e-mails...I WILL find ya'll...unless you want to contact me first (Deb, Jessica Sewall, Bri...ya'll know who you are!)

Hope all is well out there in the wide world...updates are welcome from you guys too!
Love A*F,
Lane

--
"Everything is awesome. Fundamentally."
-Bickford Schmeckler's Cool Ideas

"big things can become little things and then mean nothing, while little things can become big things and mean everything. HUH."

It's all about the little things...

It's funny how, when having lived with things a certain way for so long, you really appreciate the little things when you can get them back-like my bedside table! We have been sleeping with walls on either side of our bed for the last 2 years and it is such a relief not only to have room to stretch while still on the bed, but to have a bedside table to set my glasses, my book, my glass of water, and (Best of all) a table lamp on! I've been reading with a booklight for 2 years and I LOVE the fact that I can see the whole page again! Granted, my little $20 table from walmart doesn't have a drawer and it looks a bit messy, but it's THERE and I can use it and it's just wonderful!

Silly, I am, but happy too!