2013 The Year in Review

Hello friends and family and complete strangers that read this blog,

It’s time, once again, for the year in review blog;

2013 was a great year indeed!   I got engaged to Kate and we got hitched up as well, yeah!

Sadly my wrestling event attendance was down considerably since last year from 21 events to only 6.  However it was Kate and Addison’s first time going to wrestling.  Kate, Canaan and I attended the WWE live event at the Augusta Civic Center in June, Canaan loved it.  Addison’s first was at the Topsham Fair in August that we attended with Canaan, Kate, and the Chase Clan.  Kids had an awesome time! 

On the concert front Kate and I hit some great shows!  Starting with Jewel at the Merrill Auditorium in March with Holly Williams, we loved both of them.  We bought the live recording of Jewel’s portion of the show.   June saw us attend back to back days of music awesomeness.  Saturday we headed to Meadowbrook with Caleb and Emma for Old Crow Medicine Show & The Avett Brothers.  It was a great show and a hippie fell on me, he was very apologetic.  Sunday we went to the Old Port Festival, in total we saw like 7 acts, the only full set we watched was Charlie Mars at the CLZ stage, he was great.  That night Erin & Chase met us at the State Theatre for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s, an awesome show to say the least.  The finished out our concert season with free tickets to Grace Potter and the Nocturnals also at the State Theatre.

John and I sat front row at the State Theatre for Weird Al Yankovic, it was simply phenomenal! All around one of the best shows I have ever been too!  Sang my favorite songs of his plus a couple I’ve never heard of.  Surreal with the whole audience singing along to “The Saga Begins”. 

On June 27^th, after months of planning with the hall booked and invitations ordered Kate decided to heck with all of it and we went to City Hall and got married.  It was a lovely ceremony on the lawn under a tree with our friend Meagan as one of the witness as well as the Gardiner Animal Control Officer.   We had lunch at Alex Parker’s Steakhouse and then I went to work for a double.

Sadly I had to bid farewell to the Blazer.  She was a good vehicle whose time had come.  I sold her to Paul’s Pick Apart and used the money to register the Dodge Caravan, our new ride that we love!

We had a couple nice vacations this year.

The first was a family reunion of sorts in Maryland with Kate’s family.  It was a nice drive in our sweet new van with Caleb & Emma.  It was a lot of fun with food, music, fishing, crabbing, and more.

The Second was out kick ass Honey moon in Northern, Maine, Canada, & Downeast, Maine.

Even though we exchange vow in June we still had the reception in September at the Sportmans Club in Gardiner.  We had a nice turn out, some great food, and great dancing.  It was a lot of fun!

We took in two musicals this year.  In October Kate & I, John & Julie, Johnny & Magen, and Caleb & Emma all traveled to Lynn, MA for Evil Dead the Musical, it was fantastic.  Then in November Kate and I took in Hallowell's Gas Light theatre production of Promises, Promises.  It was really very good and well worth the ticket price!

In November we rented a house in Randolph on Hillcrest Avenue, a house that we just love! It’s two floors with the upstairs being a big loft with a bedroom for the kids to play in, basement, wood burning fireplace, big backyard with a hill that had a slope just enough to provide decent sledding! 

The Fireplace came in handy during Christmas week and Ice Storm of 2013 when we lost power for about 24 hours.  Minor compared to mom and the Roods who were out 5 – 6 days.

The kids had great years as well, Addison started the 4 year old program and participated in Fall Cheering.  Canaan entered 2^nd grade, continued with Karate, played baseball, flag football, and is currently midway through his basketball season.   They are both doing great in school. 

They are both are growing up so fast, especially Canaan, that it’s scary.

It was a good year for the Labbe’s.  

 

Holy Shit I Got Married!!!

I got married! 

That’s right on Kate and I went to the Gardiner City Hall and tied the knot on Thursday June 27, 2013. 

But let’s back it up a bit shall we.  On Wednesday the 26^th after Kate got out of work we went to City Hall to pick up our marriage license.  After the clerk gave it to us I made the comment, “now we can get married whenever we want!”  And the Clerk says, “I can do it right now for $25.”  According to Kate it we almost did right then and there.  Apparently the temptation was too much because just 20 short hours later we returned and with the Gardiner Animal Control/Safety Officer Jamie Dacyczyn and Kate’s good friend Meaghan who happened to be nearby, we got married on the side lawn of City Hall.  It was perfect!  With the aid of two cellphones and some mighty fine multi-tasking skills, Meagan was our photographer and videographer all in one!

Our wedding party

 Having a tradition wedding was something that Kate was always on the fence about, she never really wanted one but felt that it was something that we should do because, that’s what you’re supposed to do.  Traditional is not my firebug, not by a long shot! 

We are still going to have our reception on September 14^th with the honeymoon to follow.  For the most part, people don’t go to a wedding for the ceremony, they go for the party!  So we’re going to give them the party!

In other news, Canaan is now a brown belt and can break a board with his fist, awesome!

I’ve decided to watch the X-Files all over again from the beginning.   The first season debuted 20 years ago this September, I’m 10 episodes in to the first season, and it still holds up!! Although the technology is quite comical at times.  Now a-days Mulder wouldn’t have to worry about someone ruining his pictures by exposing the film in his camera, he would probably be uploading to his cloud drive whilst he was taking the photos.

Recently watched a solid flick at home entitled, No One Lives, worth watching.  Speaking of worth watching, Man of Steel was phenomenal!!!

 

Can’t believe I forgot to blog this, Kate, Canaan, and I attended the WWE House Show at the Augusta Civic Center June 2^nd.  It was Canaan’s 3^rd WWE event, Kate’s 1^st, and my, well let’s just says it’s a big number.  It wasn’t the best show I’ve ever been too, but it wasn’t the worst.  A couple good matches Canaan really like the Sheamus vs. Wade Barrett match and Cena vs. Ryback in a tables match.  I had to go to work directly after.  I really wish The Shield had been on the card.

I’ve been itching to get another tattoo for a long time.   I wanted to get one when I got my retirement pay out, but it wasn’t to be.  I’ve got a few designs printed up and I pretty much know where I want them.  I’ve been meaning to stop in a couple places and get quotes so I know what I’d been in for cost wise.  I really like Wright Tattoo, but he charges $100 an hour and that includes the set up time.  Obviously I’m not going to go someplace just because it’s cheaper, I know people who have had work done there before and I like it.

At home we watch an excessive amount of Gordon Ramsey watching Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s Kitchen, and Master Chef.  Canaan loves him some Master Chef.  I like his rampages when he get’s angry at the Chef’s for doing a lousy job.  It’s great!

I guess that’s it for now…check you guys later!

The Engagement Blog

The name of the blog really says it all!  On Monday evening I asked my beloved to be my wife and she said yes.  I mean why wouldn’t she say yes, I’m quite the catch!  Ok, ok she is too!  Truth be told I think we are both fortunate to have found each other.

So on Monday I proposed and by end of day Tuesday we had told our parents and posted it on Facebook where she won the “likes” contest, currently she is at 45 likes to my lowly 25 likes.   She also has more comments and more wall posts, thanks “friends”.

We picked a date!  It’s funny because Kate signed up for a contest a couple weeks back for a free wedding gown and it required the wedding date so she arbitrarily picked September 14^th, which then turned out to be a Saturday.  So we decided, that day works and boom!  The biggest decision was made.

The planning stages have continued rolling along nicely including ordering the Save the Dates on Wednesday and booking the reception hall on Friday, The Gardiner Sportsmen’s Club. 

Best man (John Spier) and Made of Honor (Erin Gove) are on board, which is the only wedding party that we are having except for Addison as the flower girl and Canaan who insists on being called the ring bearer.  When we told the kids they were very excited.  The only thing that disappointed Canaan was that we were getting married sooner. 

All other aspects are coming along nicely as well! 

In other news, we there really isn’t any so here’s a song

Later readers!

Michael