I have been inspired to update our personal website for a few

reasons.  One is I enjoy trying to be creative with new tools and

ideas.  Another is the tool that I have used on my earlier sites is no

longer supported by the supplier.  It still works but is a bit

cumbersome by today’s standards.  And, our previous site has a lot

of stuff on it that I want to keep there, but the site is getting a bit

convoluted to navigate.  Here is the link to our original site if you

care to see it. 

Life sure is good!  Emma

gave this small pillow to

us when we moved into

our apartment in May 5,

2005. The girls frequently

“refill” it with hugs and

kisses.

This is “Him & Me.”  It has

become sort of a symbol for Helen

and me because of our closeness

and northern roots.  We attended

an outdoor festival in Florida a few

years ago and this rather odd

looking fellow approached Helen

and asked her name.  She

paused a bit then replied “Me.” 

When he asked for my name she

replied “Him.”  Later in the day we

attended an outdoor theater at the

festival and the odd looking fellow

was the host.  When looking for

candidate actors to come up on

the stage he called us by name,

“Him & Me.”  It stuck.

Dateline July 2009:  Melissa is very busy homeschooling our three

grandaughters and maintaining a busy home business with

“Creative Memories”, a scrapbooking company.  Husband, Steve,

continues his work at Merrimack College where he is a chemistry

professor.  The three girls keep busy with dance, scouts, and

church activities.  Our  son, Michael, is a manager at Airmar in

Milford, NH.  Their primary product is design and manufacture of

transducers for maritime use.  Wife, Heather, continues to teach

health education at Pinkerton Academy (High School.)  Their two

So, just what is home?  To some, it is the first page in a web site.  To others it is often referred to as

“Home is where the heart is.”  Helen and I subscribe to both.  We have accumulated three homes in

our lifetime, which sounds a bit extravagent but understand that this all occurred over many years and

we did a LOT of the construction and renovation work ourselves.  It started in Plaistow, New

Hampshire in 1968, two years after we were married.  We had a local builder construct a “standard”

expandable Cape Cod style home.  Expandable means that the upstairs is unfinished.  We had him

build an oversize one car garage to house our one car and 14-foot boat (conservative me with “great

foresite” thinking that we will never have more than one car...yeah sure.)  The house served us well

for nearly 40 years but for a few years we could have used a few acres and a barn to house our six

cars, a boat, a camper, and a motorcycle or two!  To save a buck, we did all the interior painting and

expanded the upstairs ourselves.  Over the years we did many other interior and exterior mods

ourselves so that we can truely call it “home.”

In 1970 Melissa was born and in 1972 along came Michael.  Two children, one of each kind, perfect,

there will no more expansion of our family.  We enjoyed camping, boating, fishing, and snow skiing

among other family activities.  We were especially hooked on skiing and in 1970 we bought a piece of

land in a small, little known ski area in western Maine called Sunday River.  It took us two years to

decide that we could “afford” to build a small chalet style house.  With a LOT of help from family and

friends we managed to construct and close in our 24’x24’ chalet in just two weeks without a

professional builder; just a bunch of young, ambitious engineers.  Amazing what you can do when you

are young!  We worked on finishing it in time for the next ski season.  We’ve had an unbelievable

number of guests stay and play with us there over the years.  We certainly can call this little piece of

property “home” too.

As we have moved along in years, the snow and cold of New England winters has become less

appealing to us. We looked south and in 2001 we purchased a modest condominium home in Florida. 

It was a turnkey property; adequately furnished by the previous owner.  Helen and I have done a

significant amount of customizing it to our taste.  We occasionally spend some time there.  We have

become very active in community activities and have many very close friends there.  Our heart is in

Florida, Maine, and New Hampshire.  So we have three “homes.”  The following pages will give you

an idea of why we call them “home.”