A gift...Hermit Crabs, A lighthouse... oh yeah and JILL!

Jill's here, Jill's here, Jill's here, Jill's here, Jill's here, Jill's heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere! Jill, from California, made it back to Maine today! She and her family are in Maine for a couple of weeks, and I am thrilled that I got to spend the day with them today. Jill and I grew up in neighboring towns and attended the same schools. We were friendly throughout school, but I would say really became friends when we were seniors. I am thankful that I did not graduate not knowing her, not being able to call her my friend. She is one of very few people from high school with whom I remain in contact.

This is a picture of the gift Jill got for me for my graduation. It is a set of four notecards that she put into a frame for me. This gift is amazing for many reasons... and touches me very deeply.

She gave it to me tonight, after we had spent the day together. She gave me a card first, inside of which was a smaller notecard along with a business card... the notecard had pictures of a small boy making paintings and below the pictures was a bit of information. The boy in the pictures is three years old and has been diagnosed with autism. In order to pay for some of his services, his mother has gotten very creative. She takes elements of her son's paintings and incorporates them into her own drawing/art. She makes them into notecards and is selling them... Before even seeing the artwork, I was in awe. A woman, a mother, who has been given the challenge/blessing of a child with autism has found ways to use something he uses as an outlet as a way to help him get the help he needs. BEAUTIFUL. Then she gave me the frame with the pictures inside.. and I immediately poured over the watercolors behind the details of the drawings, wanting to see the work from this child... then I realixed that these four images were not just four random pictures... each of them has meaning to me... upper left, daisies.. my mother's favorite flower... upper right... a turtle... I love turtles, take pictures of turtles whenever I can and try to catch them...and have a whole philosophy/analogy about turtles (specifically sea turtles) and my students... lower left.. ferns... as many people know I love ferns, the color, the texture,how they start out as curls that stretch themselves straight as summer progresses...and my mom loved ferns, loved seeing the different colors of them... and the lower right... a tulip... my favorite flower... There is so much of what I love in this ... Jill had something created (the woman personalized the prints based on Jill's ideas) that is me ... parts of me at least... parts that I cherish... including its inception and creation... LOVE it! I will post more information about this mother and son duo soon... I want to get permission from the mom before I post their website information... I will try to get a better picture of them, this picture does not capture them well... tomorrow, during the day, I will take a better one.

The visit... I met Jill and her family off an exit off I 95. One of Brian's former co-workers also met us there and together we headed to the ocean. We went to a place where we found many hermit crabs! I think we ended up with around 15 or so... I had picked up some small aquarium nets to take to the beach, thinking that the kids could try to catch small fish, instead they ended up being the transport method for the hermit crabs... after catching them, Jill's son, wanted to put them into a bucket with the other ones we had caught... and he was more comfortable using the net than his hand. To catch them, I used my hands, except for a couple that were pretty big. It was a lot of fun. From there, we headed to Maine's iconic lighthouse, Portland Headlight... I think I have heard or read that it is one of the most, if not the most, photographed lighthouse in the world. (But that could be a totally incorrect fact!) It is a nice place to visit... I used to go there, spend a day sitting on a picnic table overlooking the lighthouse, reading a book and contemplating... haven't done that in a while... maybe soon... This is Jill and her hubby... Jill would not pose nicely for a photo, so she will have to deal with this one! They are working on moving back here.. and I cannot wait!



We walked around a little and saw some people doing some paintings... this was one of the people... and I was impressed with what he was doing... The last photo is of his pallet... just me taking artsy photos, as Jill would say!

After the visit to the lighthouse Jill and her family went to check into their hotel and I came home to take a shower and relax for a bit before taking Jill to dinner. We ended up out for a few hours, chatting... about so many things... Love love love her! Thanks for spending the day here so we could get some time together!