WAL-MART SUCKS

I can't believe June is over! That means we have lived here for just about 3 months. WoWee!

Craig and I both had to get our vehicles registered & inspections...$450 later! I about peed my pants when I heard how much his truck cost. Next year it'll be less because they're won't be fees for transferring states. Man, good thing Craig has a good job. How can they expect people to be able to fork out that kind of money.

Speaking of money; lately I've been really frustrated with Wal-Mart taking all our hard earned money. Back in Utah Aimee & I learned about GrocerySmarts.com. I wouldn't say I spent less money, but I got WAY WAY WAY more for my money. So we move out here and my choices of shopping is...um, Wal-Mart, Bud's Shop & Save, Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart! Talk about no competition. So pretty much I'm always going 6 miles to Wal-Mart. In fact, the other day my mom called and asked what I was doing and I told her I was headed to Wal-Mart. She said, "Every time I call you're there." Sad, but yes true. So I decided to boycott that dreaded store cuz seems like every time I go I find a way of finding things we "need" and walk out at least $50 or more. It's really annoying. So my parents are in town and we need 2 sets of blinds for our family room. Well where else am I going to go to get blinds! I made a list and ONLY bought what was on my list: blinds-two sets, granola, yogurt, lunch meat, bread, blueberries, licorice for Sunday, hair spray, deodorant and room air fresheners. I was so proud of myself as I got to the checkout and did the usual--scan through my cart and see things I don't really "need" and put back. Craig hates that I do this! It really drives him nuts. So I put back bath wash at the check out by the candy bars...Yes, I'm one of those customers. As I'm loading on the belt I see gift cards and remembered I was going to get one for my Dad for Father's Day. I grabbed Outback Steakhouse card and headed up to see the damage. $60! AGAIN?!!!! Sheesh. Well at least I only got the things on my list! Well since then I found BettyCrocker.com and got some valuable coupons to use for next time. I wish I could do grocery smarts out here!

Sunday is Kamryn Grace Allen's blessing day. We're headed down to Pelham (Dathan's) on Friday to spend a couple days there and bringing my parents back up to Maine on Sunday. For the BBQ I'm gonna make some cupcakes to get rid of my cake mixes. You can make them less fattening my adding 1/3 cup applesauce instead of oil, and 3 egg whites instead of the whole egg. Then I'm frosting them with cute decorations on top. But I'm using blueberries for the stars.

I got the idea from easycupcakes.com/american-flag-cupcakes. It should be fun times. We're really excited to see my parents and let them see our neck-of-the-woods.

Our camp out @ Acadia National Park

Sand Beach


Jaycee loves camping


Jaycee was obsessed with the water bottles


On Saturday morning we went for a 6.3 mile bike ride around a lake. It was beautiful and pretty tough. Jaycee fell asleep during the ride.







Pic of the sea side by our camp site


light house we went to


Jaycee & Craig on the sea wall


Jaycee & I posing ;) smile


All the different islands off the coast of where we were


islands in the distance with the moon coming out


more islands


Love the ocean!


So pretty!


Right by our camp site


On our way down to the light house


This would be one of the numerous light houses we've seen. People actually live in this light house and operate it.



Islands



On a spur-of-the-moment Craig & I decided to go on a weekend camp out at Acadia. We bought an annual pass so might as well take advantage. We booked the site 2 days earlier and headed up Friday after noon. On Friday we stopped at Subway and bought foot longs for lunch/dinner. We had saved up our calories to have a yummy sub and a smore for later. This whole diet thing is kicking our butt; but it's worth it. Craig has lost 6 pounds and I haven't got on this week--for certain reasons I'm not supposed to weigh myself. But as of last Sunday I've lost 3. We're really seeing results and a lifestyle change. Anyway...so we drove up, set up our tent, and then went drove 2 minutes down the road to a light house. It was a gorgeous view and the sun was just about to set. Our camp site was just across from the ocean sea wall. It's amazing up here! Saturday we woke up, packed up, went on a 6.3 mile bike ride and visited some of the touristy areas including Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, and Bar Harbor. All in all it was a super fab weekend and hope to do it again soon.

Just some more random pics & video

Jaycee's cheesy smile!


Mommy & daughter pose. She likes to watch shows on the laptop with me


Jaycee pushing her teddy bear in her stroller. Thank you Aunt Sheri & Carla for her stroller. She absolutely loves it! She puts all kinds of things in it to push around the house.


Hi Jaycee


Such a funny girl.


Jaycee has learned some manners....If any of you know sign language you'll know what she's saying.

Jaycee's Video Updates

Father's Day Weekend

On Saturday Craig and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary! It was Craig's year to plan so we ended up driving 1 1/2 hours to Portland to see all the ligthouses, walk around downtown, and enjoy a nice dinner! Craig made reservations for a recommended yummy seafood restaurant, but as we were walking around we found a really nice Brazilian Steakhouse and couldn't resist. It sounded so good to me! Thanks Craig for the romantic and creative anniversary date. We had a blast and even enjoyed it with Jaycee. I just love my hubby so much! It's crazy to think 3 years ago we were in the temple getting married. Time flies! If I could sum up the past 3 years in one word it'd be....INCREDIBLE! I'm excited for more years to come~

On Sunday was Father's Day. Happy Father's Day my two amazing dads (Reyn & Larry). And a happy father's day to my wonderful Craig! We had a CRAZY day. I made fruit & yogurt parfaits for breakfast and gave Craig's his gifts. Jaycee and I got him floor mats for his truck, fishing pants, a memory card for his phone, and a framed picture of Jaycee. He was so excited and even more because I actually kept a secret and didn't tell him. We headed for church and Craig got the opportunity :) to give a talk. Also he called sustained at the new Branch clerk. He's excited for his new calling. As we were singing the opening hymn, Craig found out he was the only speaker and the other ones didn't come. He did a great job and talked about fathers. Well the time had come to give my lesson. I was so nervous but I had planned all week and felt prepared and ready. As I was in the middle of my lesson I felt the strong impression to talk about something that happened to me in my life. I didn't want to talk about it but felt I needed to share. Before I could even speak I just broke down sobbing. I was embarrassed cuz I was crying so hard I couldn't talk. I ended my lesson with a song "Never A Better Hero" with hopes we all can appreciate Christ's Atonement and show gratitude. I felt the spirit so strong. I just hope and pray the ladies took something from the lesson, and grateful they helped me through it. I'll start preparing for next month in a couple weeks. We got home and I made Craig fajitas for dinner with enough calories to have 2 homemade Red Velvet cupcakes. It was really hard to make a whole batch of cupcakes and only eat 2! I ended up giving the missionaries a couple, Jaycee a couple, and the rest the garbage got! Craig & I started a diet last week. We work out really hard at least 4 days/week and wasn't seeing results on the scale. So we decided to cut & count calories. On Sunday was our 1 week and both of us lost 3 pounds. It's really hard, but so worth it. Father's Day night ended with Craig going to do home teaching for about an hour and a couple episodes of 24. Also the missionaries came over for about 15 minutes. Sister Brown left on Tuesday for Salt Lake City! She was such a great missionary. So nice, friendly, and I loved talking to her. Her testimony really showed through and I was so thankful to meet her and say good bye. She will be missed....good thing for Facebook!

We'll be under the stars this weekend!....

Well that's about all for now. This weekend should be exciting. I made reservations tonight for camping on Friday @ Acadia National Park. Tomorrow I'll be getting a menu made and things together so Friday we can leave right when Craig gets home. I'll make sure to take plenty of pics!

Jaycee update

Jaycee is growing so much. It amazes me! Her vocabulary consists of: No, Ya, Mama (although she calls me Mana-thanks to Craig who calls me Manda), Mana (i don't correct her because it's so cute!), dadda & daddy, Peese (please), dan-du (thank you), baby, IZZY, stop (she yells at Izzy to STOP barking), poop (when we ask if she has a dirty diaper we ask, Are you Poopie? That's when she says "Ya, Poop" and lays down on her back), Boo!, whe Day-dee? Boo (Where's Jaycee, Boo!), Ewww (ever since she was little I smell her toes and say Ewww; now she'll lift her foot and smell it saying Ewww), mobee (movie), uh-oh, dink (drink), na-night, bankie (even though her stuffed animals & blankets are babies), Hi, Buh-bye, and many other babbles. She has come to love dancing & music. Here is a video of her dancing to her farm magnet toy from Uncle Don. Also she loves to climb in the cupboard and play peek-a-boo. I always say...Where's Jaycee? Then, she'll come out and say Boo! That's how she picked up that saying. I think there are some others but can't think of them right now. Craig's favorite is when he'll say, Ready, Set, and then Jaycee says Go! We just love her! She's getting into such a fun age, but sometimes it's not so fun. She likes to take the plugs out of the sockets in the wall, she'll mess in the garbage can, scream until she gets her way, or just getting into things she knows she shouldn't. But, she is learning. At church on Sunday she was playing in the hall and went up to a light socket and said, No, No, No and walked away. I laughed. I guess time out and talking to her is working out.

P.S. I tried 4 times to upload videos and they're not working. I'll try posting them later

Another adventurous Saturday

Craig decided he wanted to buy a bike so we can do some biking. He thought it'd be a good idea to look at Yard Sales and if we couldn't find one, we were gonna go to Wal-Mart cuz he found the one he wanted there. We stopped at a Yard Sale that The Baptist Church was doing. We arrived 2 hours before they were done. In doing so, the lady in charge came up to us saying anything we can fit in the brown bag (in the pic to the left) was $1. I found a bunch of books, a teddy bear backpack, and the ball popper toy. On our way to leave we found the baby bath and the lady told us .25! We borrowed Dathan & Kel's with Jaycee so we needed one for the next baby we have. Then to make it better we saw the DVD/Book rack and she told us $1. We got to the front and she told us...$2.25! For all this?!! We were stunned. It was a donation Yard Sale so we just wrote out a check for $10. I must say we got a good deal! AND Jaycee loves her new books and toy!






Well we didn't find the bikes at a Yard Sale. We headed out to Skowhegan to Wal-Mart and to check out the New Balance Factory. At Wal-Mart we found both these bikes that were clearanced. The red one is Craig's. This is the one he found online and wanted but it was $188 and he didn't want to spend that. We found it on clearance for $122. He was stoked! Then as we were going to leave I saw the yellow one marked down to $52! He couldn't pass it up and convinced me to get it since my old bike needed at least $25 in work. So we ended up leaving wal-mart 2 bikes richer! We got home and right away we had to go on a ride. There are bike/ATV trails everywhere! We rode up to the grocery store to buy Lysol Wipes to clean the books & toys and then rode a long way home. All together I'd say about 4-5 miles. After not riding a bike forever I couldn't believe it was kinda tiring. I'm excited to start riding a lot more! Craig is really excited too because I found out he has a wicked past of riding bikes. I never knew that. In fact, he was so excited that we rode them to our friend's house for a BBQ and he rides his bike to work. We're excited for our new adventure of Mountain Bike Riding. We haven't bought a trailer/carrier for Jaycee yet. I put in a bid at Ebay hoping to get it cheaper than what Wal-Mart wants for one. As of now, Jaycee gets strapped on Craig's back and she loves it! We love Maine and the fun things to do here!

Just some randomness

I don't really have any new pics to add, but decided to take a minute to say hi to all our family and friends! HI!!! It's crazy to think we've been here for 2 months already. Time sure does fly.

Craig is absolutely loving his job. He passed the Utah PE Test that he was studying so hard for. Now he can officially say he is a Professional Engineer. I'm so proud of him. All the schooling paid off. You'd think with having a masters degree you'd be done with tests....Nope! Now that he passed the Utah PE he has to take the California test in April which is a surveying and sysmeic test. Once he passes those 2 tests he will be licensed in both Utah & Cali. Oregon has reciprocity with both states so then Craig will just have to pay $ to be licensed in Oregon and we can move out and start work there in Estacada. Then, just when all the test SHOULD be done, he'll take the SE Test in 3 years saying he is officially a Structural Engineer. I never knew there could be so many tests! He'll do awesome though. He studies like crazy, and I go a little crazy, but I will support him in anything he wants! Obviously, cuz I'm in Maine!!! He has made some friends in his new office, and I got to meet the CEO, Jack, the other day. I'm really liking this company and especially how they treat their employees & families. Good move! It's always a good job when it's exciting to go to work to learn and apply all the schooling on a job. Oh, and another good thing....Craig got promoted from a cubicle to an office...ha ha. He gets his own office WITH A DOOR! he he. He's gonna put a picture up from Kyle (thanks Kyle for the football pic), and needs more ideas. We're always open for an ideaR. I'll post pics of it.
The church is growing! We had a full house on Sunday, but then again it was a baby blessing. With only 6 pews in the building you'd think it'd be full. I got the chance yesterday to take the Sister Missionaries to Augusta for a zone conference. They were there from 9-2:30 so Jaycee & I took advantage of the city and shopped. I got some good deals on clothes from Old Navy & Target. I love baby clothes shopping! On the way home Sister Brown & I talked a ton. She is so nice! It's so fun to hear her stories and life in the mission field. I love having sister missionaries in our area because it gives me a chance to do things with them. Craig did get a calling 2 weeks ago, but I can't say what it is. It has to clear through the stake first and also has to get sustained, but he's really excited for it. I am too! I have to give my lesson in 2 weeks in Relief Society. I almost had a breakdown on Sunday because I am SO NERVOUS! I don't know why. I just ask for all your thoughts and prayers. I read over the lesson and the whole lesson is The Atonement. What a way to start my first time teaching! I'm still thinking of ways to make the lesson interesting and attentive. I'm always open for any ideas. Craig and I have also started a count down...3 months until Jaycee goes to nursery!!!! She is at that stage that she doesn't want to sit still and runs everywhere! It's really hard to keep her sitting still and quiet for 3 hours. She just wants to run and play. Usually Craig or I have to go out in the hall with her. I think Craig volunteers a lot since she is his hall-pass :)
Life is good. I am happy although days I'm sad because I want to see my family and friends. What gets me through those hard times is looking at my amazing husband & best friend and my little girl. Craig and I both prayed and thought a lot about this decision to move, and really felt it was what we were supposed to do. Whether because we're supposed to be in Maine; whether we are supposed to be working for Kleinschmidt; or whether we are here to help the people, we don't know. The Lord definetely works in mysterious ways whether we know at that moment it's him working! I truly have faith that I will put my life in his hands, and we will be blessed. It's happened too many times to not keep my faith in him! It's hard leaving behind all my nieces and nephews, family, and in-laws but one thing that has come out of all of this is Craig and I are such best friends! He has helped me so much through my melt-downs and my sad times. I just love our relationship and the stronger it becomes. Also I LOVE BEING AT HOME EVERYDAY! I really thought it'd be hard for me. I've had a job since I was 16! I notice now that 5:00 comes too fast and Craig is home and ready for dinner & to play. I have no ideaR where time goes. If I had to go back to working I would do it, but it would definetly be hard.
....Just some thoughts for the day, and how we are doing...Our 3 year anniversary is in 11 days. 3 years ago today I was preparing to go to the temple and become Mrs. Parker! This year is Craig's year to plan the anniversary and we're thinking of going to Portland to see the lighthouses and a yummy seafood restaraunt since we are right on the coast. The other ideaR is to go island hopping on a cruise ship right outside of Portland. Only problem with that ideaR is I get motion sickness really easy, and Dramamine makes me soooo tired whether or not the bottle says Less Drowsy. So we'll see what he has in store for our fun anniversary celebration.
Oh, and since it's on my mind....Congrats to Aimee, who is busy and working all day with making her new little baby! It takes a lot on a body to have a baby grow inside of you and is so tiring especially in the 1st trimester. I'm so excited to find out what she is having and hopefully will get to hold "her" when "she" is born. I'm thinking PINK is in the air. Yay Aimee! Oh, and for the record, that's pretty impressive to hold a secret for 6 months from your best friend! I had no ideaR they were even trying. If you can't tell...I'm so excited! Just wish I could be there to see her belly grow.
Loves to All! We miss you all dearly. We're excited for December to come out and visit. We're daily checking air flight $ and even got a Jet Blue Credit Card. We will be home for Christmas! Yahoo!

It's about that time...

BEFORE....







Sportin the Jaycee hair do



Craig HAD a nice head of hair



MUG SHOTS....GROSS





He loves that he can shave nastiness in his facial hair. I made him shave it quick cuz that's just nasty. For Halloween he wants to grow a mullet. Justin will appreciate that very much! Summer time=shave all the hair off.

Emotional Roller Coaster Today

Happy to see my brother and eat lunch with his family; Sad to drop off Brayden & Haylie because we had so much fun this last weekend; Excited I got to see my new niece Kamryn Grace; Aggrivated I missed the off ramp to 2-95 causing me extra time on the drive home, which I was so ready to be home; Exstatic my car got 36 mpg & only $28 to fill up; Exhausted from mowing our huge lawn & yard work; Mourn for my neighbor Jackie who went in for a biopsy on her lung, and we found out tonight that she has cancer in her head & lungs and only 3-18 months to live; Giddy that I have the best husband and daughter to make my day end well! I'd say time for bed!

Memorial Day Weekend Continued

Jaycee posing in her Sunday best! We bought her that couch (in the background) about a month ago. She always loved playing with Rhett and Haylie's so we figured she deserved one for herself. They only had Toy Story, but I figure if we have another baby and it's a boy that's better then a Cinderella one. As we say in the Parker house....GOOD PURCHASE!


Jaycee in front of our flowers. Craig picked this dress out last year from Kohls. GOOD PURCHASE! She got lots of compliments and I don't blame them. She's my little QT!


This weekend was so fun. Saturday was Popham Beach with the Bergs (Ryan, Kat & little Berg-aka Dale) On Memorial Day we drove to Acadia with the Lowe family. We ended up buying an annual pass. We only have to go 2x to make it worth it. When we got here we found out Acadia National Park is so big and so much to do....beaches, hiking, camping, picnics, and even ATV trails. We'll be coming back shortly. This day we played at Echo Lake Pond. We had a blast and the water was about 10 degrees warmer than the ocean. We love our new friends and hanging out!


Jaycee eating Red Vines. That's Savion Lowe in the background. He's 4 months older than Jaycee. He's already spoken for so she'll just have to take the older guys....STEVIE ;)


ECHO LAKE POND @ACADIA NATIONAL PARK. That's Stevie Lowe walking into the water. The water was much warmer and you could walk out really far until you couldn't touch. The thing I hated was there were little fish swimming around my legs...Creepy!....so Jaycee and I stayed where we sit without being swarmed by fish!


ECHO LAKE POND. SO BEAUTIFUL!


Stevie in the hole we dug. He's a funny boy. We dug it so deep that water started coming in from the bottom. It was pretty cool.


Stevie playing in our huge hole. That was fun.



No more sun to warm us up....TIME TO GO...What a fun day!