Sent From Above

She is here. At last, little Audrey Carolee McNamara has arrived to deliver her message of love and purity, pulling at our heartstrings and awakening something new within each of us without forgetting the past, like only she can. As for me, this day September 28th, is a very special one. I am a new Aunt. A proud Aunt. She enlivened Chris and I tonight by her beauty, her smell, her little sounds. I am energized and inspired to shower her with my affections and my support. I am so relieved to have another piece of Mom in my life - something tangible and beautiful. Weighing in at under 7 lbs. she is every bit the gem that I imagined and Chris and I could not be happier for Brian and Michelle. Can you tell how proud I am of her already?

Love is the Name I Call You (Part II)

Day Two: A slightly more casual celebration of family and friends at the dwelling place of Chris' Uncle Brian in Dartmouth, MA, better known as "The Stonehouse."





Here are some pictures from day 2, including an attempt to capture 4 second cousins on one lawn chair at the same time. Wishful thinking...

Gramp, Terry, Turlough, Nana and Maeve:



From left to right: Anna, Liam, Lyra and Maeve:




Uncle Dennis with granddaughter, Lyra:



Dennis, Lyra, Chris and Maeve get acquainted:



Jen and Liam (Lyra's parents) all the way out from Portland, OR!



Just a really cool photo...



A couple of brackish babes...



As I type this, I would imagine Katie and Olase are fast asleep somewhere in Paris. We are missing them and look forward to diving into more celebrations of love and laughter upon their return.

L'amour est travail. L'amour est plaisir. L'amour étudie. L'amour est se tenir et laisser vont sans partir. L'amour retourne
et rotation et reconstruction et construction nouvelle. L'amour est appel du nom I vous.

Love is the Name I Call You (Part I)

For three years we have loved, now well, now badly, now a love of honey and fire, now of bone and rust, now of pick handles entwined with red roses. I hold my breath like a candle in the wind, trotting toward you, eager now as the first night, the first month, the first summer and fall and winter. Love is work. Love is pleasure. Love is studying. Love is holding and letting go without going away. Love is returning and turning and rebuilding and building new. Love is words mating like falcons a mile high. Love is work, growing strong and blossoming like an apple tree. Love is two rivers that flow together. Love is our minds stretching out webs of thought and wonder and argument, slung across the flesh or the wires of distance. Love is the name I call you.

September 22, 2007 was both beautiful and magical. Everything I anticipated it to be and then some. The weather was perfect (no doubt orchestrated by Carolee) and the celebration sublime - filled with laughter, honor, and love.

Katie and Olase tied the knot with lots of people who love and support them wherever they looked - in every direction. Here are some shots to give you a glimpse of some of the preparation and the big day itself:

The "cooking tent" where you can see two (VERY LARGE) stock pots which turned into a seemingly unending supply of seafood chowder and seafood gumbo, all prepared by Olase's mother, Nanette. This remarkable woman cooked for days and days and days (you get the idea) and despite the large quantity of food prepared, each serving tasted as if she made it especially for you; and nobody else - I mean nobody.







The ceremony...



The fun...







The gumbo...



The goosebumps...

The Elusive Regatta

Last Sunday, Maeve and I accepted an invitation from Katie, a third-year member of the Holy Cross Sailing Team, to spectate a regatta in Newport, RI. We hopped in the car around 8:30 AM and made our way to Newport arriving at about 10 AM. Just enough time to give Aunt Katie a good luck kiss and hug, watch her ready boat number 5 and sail away into the sunshine only to wonder would she ever come back? We stood there and waited for the boats to circle back around to the place she left us, but the boats never came. We waited and waited and waited keeping ourselves busy by dodging an excessive amount of yellow jackets, running up and down (dangerously close to the lapping waves) the boat launching ramp, eating some granola and apple sauce, calling Eileen to giggle with her about the fact that we had no idea where Katie had sailed off to, played near what I would hate to subsequently learn was a sewage pipe (see photo) until finally, two hours later, A-Ka appeared telling us that they came in 14th out of 18th place in their previous race (not too bad for the Crusaders apparently) and that if I had only driven another half-mile down the road, I would have come to a look out point where I could have watched the entire regatta. Sigh. They had some better races after Maeve and I departed and although we feel like we were jipped out of spending some time with A-Ka due to her collegiate duties, we'd drive anywhere, dodge any amount of flying insects, and come terrifyingly close to raw sewage to see her, if only for a moment.

The Kid or the Slippers?

Who's cuter? Cast your vote. The kid or the slippers? Think very carefully before making your decision...

Weddings Bells in Durham

September 8, 2007, the McNamaras migrated north to Durham Maine for the celebration of the wedding of Chris' cousin Conan to the ever-amiable, ever-genial Heather Anderson. It was a hot day, but not too hot for kicking up our heels a bit and celebrating the meaning of true love and eternal happiness. Congratulations to Conan and Heather!

Story Hour in Seekonk

After much pestering, Maeve finally assuages Da, A-Ka and (Great) Uh-Ba with a reading of Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

A Sortie to Capron

At the end of only a ten minute drive from our place in Seekonk, you and your Dad can pretend you're a family of bats in a tree (standing strangely upright on a branch I might add) and give your Momma a shockingly smug expression after you have doggedly fed a llama for the first time...

Adios Great White Hope

Although not as emotional for me as the untimely departure of the Rav 4, a couple of weeks ago I boldy took our check book by the reigns and told Chris one Saturday afternoon: C'mon, we're going to buy you a new (to us) truck. Why such haste you might ask? It basically boiled down to the following reasons:

1. If you sneezed too close to Chris' truck, the body where the rust was accumulating would shed a little in the driveway;
2. You could hear Chris coming from a mile away - no joke, and the "banana in the tail pipe" would not have been the solution;
3. If it rained too much, Chris would either have to start his car 4-5 times during the work day or either get a ride home from a co-worker OR Maeve and I;
4. I felt as though on any given day, Chris could be driving along and the entire chassis would give way leaving him with nothing but a steering wheel and an axle.

So of course, in true Bridget fashion, I kissed the hood of the truck, made Chris do the same, and took a few photographs to help us memorialize everything that the white truck meant to us. Toyota...oh what a feeling.

Loo's Looking Good

Hey everybody! Here's an update for those of you who have shown earnest attentivenes to our bathroom remodel. Floor is in (nice Italian marble) and sink has been dry-fitted (but not used yet). Just a few steps closer to our bathroom-warming party...