Clearing the Blog

There is so much to write and catch up on as the holiday's fall upon us... but for now, I just needed to get this darn wedding picture off the page of our blog...

I don't know where the time goes... blogging is one of my favorite things to do, and yet the time evades me.

I will do better...  Hmmmm... do I sense a New Years Resolution?

Something to Celebrate

Sept. 2, 2000

Please join us…

The honor of your presence

is requested at

the reaffirmation of the wedding vows of

Harmony Emmanuelle

and

Samuel Albert

Sunday, August 29th

at

Two O’clock

4608 Abbington Drive   |   Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

RSVP: Boore Renewal


Please stay tuned for the details of our ten years together,
why we have madethe decision to reaffirm our vows
and why we have chosen to include all of you.

More to come...

Birds of a Feather...

It’s alarming, I know…

His name is “Baldi” – for obvious reasons.

Were it not for the red feathers, we’d have almost no idea what kind of bird this is. Growing up in Maine where bright red cardinals abound, I became familiar with their song, territorial nature, their lifetime commitment to their breeding habits and most pointedly, their stately appearance.

Typically, the cardinals that visit our home look like this guy:

Full breasted and scarlet in color, they boast the signature Mohawk-like plumage on their heads, giving them the appearance of glamour with a rebel’s edge. Also, they don’t tend to be very friendly birds. I once watched in awe as a cardinal tried to attack his own reflection in our dining room window for a good twenty minutes.

Anyway, back to Baldi.

We make a big deal out of our birds around here. We have three bird feeders just outside our dining room windows, branches cut specifically for their perching pleasure, and a bird bath with fresh water. We often gaze at their busy little lives while we go about our own. Baldi began to visit our birdie paradise about a year ago. His head was spotted with feathers, like an old man with a terrible comb-over. I sneered at his unfortunate looks and hoped he’d go away – I didn’t want him to contaminate the feeders if he has some kind of disease.

I sneered at his unfortunate looks and hoped he’d go away...

An animal lover to a fault, as he came more frequently, I started a little love affair with him. I noticed he isn’t territorial like the other male cardinals and he’s busy all the time: foraging, collecting, peering and never seeming ill in any way. Were it not for the nearly featherless head, I’d think him a completely healthy bird.

One day, while at the kitchen sink I noticed a little wren with a slight look to him: very thin and timid of the other birds. He was sitting on the rail to our patio and looking like a bit of an outcast. My heart swelled with empathy for him as I watched. He jumped down to the bird bath and looked at the water, hesitant. When other birds flew off suddenly, he braced himself, but didn’t move; head down and looking up. He flinched once again when another bird landed on the bath with him, it was Baldi.

...another bird landed on the bath with him, it was Baldi.

The little bird looked at the now completely bald, unattractive veteran. Baldi leaned into the little wren, head low and cocked to the side. Before I knew what was happening, the little bird leaned in closer to Baldi and took a seed, already shelled, out of Baldi’s mouth and eagerly ate. An involuntary gasp escaped my mouth while I stood before the kitchen sink, water still running mindlessly down the drain. I snapped the faucet shut and looked back, just in time to see Baldi take off, toward the large evergreen which hides his home. The wren stayed in place for a bit longer, but eventually flew away as well.

I was dumb struck. Rarely do birds feed one another – particularly the proud cardinal. Is it possible that this sickly bird has developed a desire to care for other unfortunate birds? The standards of female cardinals are high – there is doubt he is courting a girly friend. I wonder who he nests with. Does he have a nest at all?

This all happened about four weeks ago.

Ever since, I’ve been trying to get his picture; just to have it as remembrance.

He is a cardinal without feathers.

With the loss of his feathers, he also abandoned his natural territorial tendencies.

Now he accepts all.

He has been forced to give up the procreation demands of Mother Nature.

He has no family to gather and forage for, so instead he does so for all others.

Perhaps I give this bird too much credit.

Is the mind of a bird capable of empathy, reason or unconditional love?

Maybe not, but for us much more complicated upright homosapiens,

it is a lesson worth noting.

Liv's Message...

Our daughter, Olivia, is a wondrous and spirited young lady. 

She turned 8 on July 3rd of this year and with her transition into adolescence, she has begun turning toward our church and the deep, thought-provoking stories of the bible.  I am often fielding questions about the bible, Jesus and how he came to be.  Drew and Liv attended Vacation Bible School this summer (you can check out the Vacation Bible School Blog here) and for them both, it was a fulfilling and an enormously enjoyable experience, but it has affected Liv in a much deeper way.

Born with a natural tendency to absorb everything around her, Liv grew into an active, talkative and challenging toddler.  It's important to note Liv was not poorly behaved, she was just very busy; always moving, always talking and always exploring. 

I would affectionately refer to her as a 'high octane' kid. 

Liv at age Two:  Note the chaos surrounding her

Because of her high energy level, I have found over time that she also processes information in a flash; sometimes it sticks and she remembers, other times it's as though I've said nothing at all.  There has been debate as to whether or not it is selective hearing, but the debate carries through to this day and I have no conclusion to share.

Liv Today

As Liv began growing into her more sophisticated, 8 year old self, I have made it a point to talk with her more often about some penetrating topics.  With each discussion, she listens intently then takes some time to digest it.  It is a rare day when I present her with information and we have a productive conversation about it right away.  Typically she will take the information with her and over the next few days the questions will bubble up in conversation; our talk, slowly simmering under surface.

I was drawn to a simple message...

So as you can imagine, after an information-rich week like that of Vacation Bible School, the questions and comments abound.  I have been surprised by the stamina of this particular topic however.  Liv's attention span usually leaves only enough room for a few important questions over a couple of days but the ideas of our church have kept her interest.

This past weekend we drove out to Altoona for the Boore Family Reunion - a grand event held every year originating from the gathering of the ten children of Grandma Boore.  Over the years this event has grown to include activities, drawings, games and guest books. This year, someone created a banner for all attendees to sign and date.  Leisurely reading through the messages, I was drawn to a simple message enclosed in a great big heart:

Tears rolled down my cheeks and I ran for my camera.

A child's handwriting... in bright pink marker...

a heart, of all things, drawn around it as a testimony of her love...

the message she chose for a room full of strangers to read.

Seeing this message - all the way in Altoona - so far from our home and our church,

I know she is listening.

I know she is getting it.

I know she carries God with her.

Watching her develop herself, as she chooses, has been a tremendous gift.

Thank you, Dearest Olivia, for all you are and all you promise to become.

We Love you,

Mum & Dad

Baltimore Aquarium

Hello!

I know, it's been a while...

Well, you know how these things go. Your intentions are always so good, then life grabs a hold of all your free time and you carry around that misty cloud of weight: "I can't wait until I can sit down and..."

For some people the dot, dot, dot is: watch tele, talk to so-and-so, Facebook (ahem...) or golf. Whatever your dot, dot, dot may be, mine is to post. Each day that passes, I think, "I can't wait to get to my computer and post."

I have family living in Maine - in fact, nearly all of my
family lives in Maine - save a cousin or two.

This Blog has become the portal to our
lives here in Harrisburg, PA.

Sam and I took the kids to Inner Harbor this past weekend (Maryland). We had a fantastic time on our day trip there and I took a million pictures. I promise not to bore you with all of them, but I have included a few below for your viewing pleasure. I will also share with you an interesting conversation with a water taxi driver as we passed from Inner Harbor over to Fell's Point. He may as well have been from my great state:

After some good old fashioned elbow throwing and bantering sarcasm, he looked me in the eye and said,

"What's in H'rrisburg, anyway? 'Sa shame you gotta come all the way down here to enjoy a day out."

It struck me for a minute. I wasn't sure what to say. Then it dawned on me,

"You, of course. I came all the way down here to see you, and that's the welcome I get?"

He shot me a gnarly, toothless grin and replied simply,

"Good'un. I don' blame yah."

The pictures below are of our day trip to Baltimore... scroll down and I'll show you all we saw.

So, we started with the

National Baltimore Aquarium.

Sam and I had gone to visit this place when we were dating - this is the first time the kids have seen it. Drew's obsession with sharks made it a particularly eye-opening experience for him.

As most of you now know, I have been developing my love of photography into something of a full-blown hobby. Being home with the kids for the summer, I decided I was going to document this summer in a whole new way, starting primarily with this blog. What it has also given me, however, is the inspiration I needed to start exploring the potentials of my camera a bit more aggressively. The pictures of this day in Baltimore gave me the perfect opportunity to give my new knowledge a test run.

This starfish was stuck to the glass of an exhibit, facing a room full of
gawking children and nervous parents.
He was, essentially, staring at his audience for a change.

We visited the tropical tanks and then, of course, the deep sea tanks to visit the sharks.

At the very top of the aquarium, encased in a glass pyramid, is a make shift rainforest. It inhabits many creatures you would typically see in areas no where near Harrisburg. This colorful fellow was quite happy to act as singing host to all the onlookers and giddy kiddies.

In a new exhibit, Jellies Invasion, I found a new facination for myself... regardless of the fact this trip was for the kids. The way these things float, ghostlike, through the water was live salve for the nerves. In this particular exhibit, they played new age, soothing music and the lighting for these tanks was different from all the others. It was a beautiful thing to witness and a wonderous thing to photograph.

This is the inside of a Jellyfish, taken with a macro.

These had the very technical name of "Upside Down Jellies".

fter the aquarium, we hopped on the water taxi and headed for our favorite place: Fells Point.

Apparently this place is a big deal - they even mass produce a bumper sticker for the patrons. It was a great adventure to enter into an ancient building baring the name "Bertha's", to explore its maze of an interior and find a corner table with a most jubulient waitress and eat mussels until our hearts' content.

Fresh mussels... kind of like home.

Afterwards, we got ice cream.

Liv, of course, had to have the most obnoxious ice cream they had:

It was BRIGHT blue.

From Fells Point, we caught another water taxi and headed onward to Fort McHenry, the Revolutionary War location of the origination of the Star Spangled Banner.

This is where it was written.

A water taxi then took us from Fort McHenry, back to Fells Point where we enjoyed Icees with brilliantly colored sugar syrup squeezed over them... it was about 100 degrees in the sun, so we felt obligated to enjoy them as we waited for our connection back to the Inner Harbor.

When we arrived, we were lured by the thought of air conditioning and reentered the aqarium for the Dolphin Show. Our seats were way up in the nose bleed section, however, the show was really great and these animals clearly love what they are doing for all their adoring fans.

Drew and Liv are an absolute wonder - we are so blessed to have this time with them and to experience days like these with them.  Days like this are so nice to record and to share it with all of you makes it better even still.

Our love to you all,

The Boore Family

Redirecting...

This week Drew and Liv are attending our church's Vacation Bible School and I have volunteered to post a blog for the week's activities during the events at our church. 

Please feel free to visit

http://www.devonshirediaries.blogspot.com/

To see what the kids and I are up to this week.  Due to the time demand, I will not be posting on this site but will be posting on the above link in a shorter, more general dialogue. 

Regular posting here will resume next week... thanks for checking us out!

Homemade Champions

The Devonshire Softball Team has become the iconic gathering of heros for our family and our church.  For a group of ordinary men, this team has fused together in a most extraordinary way.  My husband is one of these men.

Crawling into a black tee-shirt, they imagine themselves dusty and focused.  They pull the familiar red jersey over their heads and smooth it out; "Devonshire' announced from their chests.  In their cars, the music prepares them for battle.  Something loud and blood churning - something to heighten their senses and summon their inner champion.   

Once they begin to assemble, the neuro-processes begin to fire.  Where they were thinking of time in terms of minutes and hours, they now think in terms of innings and outs.  Their biological needs narrow to only one: thirst.  Their minds race in only one direction: win.  They are no longer individuals; they are now a team.

The last game they played was last Tuesday, in the throws of a record-breaking heatwave.  I took these pictures before the kids finally gave in to the heat - we had to leave... it was just too hot.  But the men carried on.  They went on to win their second game (always a double-header) and with it, moved onto the Championship games.  If they win both on Sunday night, then its over and they enjoy the title of Champion once again. 

This is a group of ordinary heros, who are already champions to us. 

Good Luck on Sunday!