Happy Birthday Mae!

Today we celebrated Gianna's 3rd birthday. Our princess turned three yesterday! She couldn't wait to have her Dora cake. She loved all her presents with her favorite being her Dora doll that she can take into the bathtub. Three words that best describe our little girl are...funny, animated and LOUD! She enjoys every minute of every day. Gianna is one happy girl! We love you little Mae! Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Dad

Today Dad is 75 years young. We had a great birthday celebration over the weekend with the whole family including Ricky, Chieko and the kids from Florida.

I had so much fun coming up with fun facts for my sister Kim's birthday, I thought I would try it for Dad's 75th. I never thought I would be able to do it but we had so much fun putting this list together. I read this to him at the party.

1. He was born on March 18, 1933.
2. Without question he is the smartest man I know.
3. He is the third of five children.
4. He is the youngest of his brothers.
5. He is the peacemaker in his family.
6. He used to sleep outside on his porch as a kid.
7. He used to share a bedroom with his brothers and one day his brother Bill decided he didn’t like the wallpaper. So one morning he woke to a man in their room stripping the paper off the walls.
8. Some of his jobs as a boy were pumping gas, delivering newspapers, mowing lawns, and working at the downtown drug store soda counter.
9. As a child he served as an alter boy at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Walpole.
10. He and the other alter boys used to go to Nantasket Beach with his mother as a chaperone and his mom would ride the roller coaster.
11. He walked up hill both ways in the snow to and from school.
12. He was the quarterback of his football team his senior year of high school.
13. That same year he led his team to victory at the annual Thanksgiving football game.
14. His best friends today are the same best friends he’s had for many, many years.
15. When he was in high school he and his friends would sing and harmonize together when they were out riding around in the car.
16. For some reason he refers to his brother as “Brother Bill” as if he were a man of the cloth.
17. As we were told time and time again, did you know that he helped put the roof on the gazebo in Walpole Center?
18. He graduated from high school at 16 and did a post graduate course before he went to college.
19. He has his bachelor’s degree from Boston College.
20. He is one very proud BC alumnus.
21. He is a season ticket holder for BC football games.
22. In 1961, he started his own business and R.J. Smith Insurance Agency was born.
23. Dad always tucked us kids in at night so lovingly, tossing us around in the air like sardines, tucking those sheets in so tight that there was no way we could ever fall out of bed, let alone move a muscle.
24. As kids, he used to make us breakfast every Sunday morning with cinnamon toast as his specialty.
25. He was also in charge of giving me baths leaving me in there for hours in cold water as he “listened to the radio” in his bedroom or in other words fell sound asleep on his bed.
26. I’ve been told that when mom was in the hospital having me, the meals consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pancakes and cereal.
27. Still to this day if he is on his own for dinner he will eat cereal.
28. He was always the one that helped with the homework.
29. He taught all of us how to drive a car.
30. As kids, the TV show that really made him belly laugh was “All in the Family” which he would routinely watch after work each night.
31. He used to stay up late to watch Johnny Carson too.
32. One of my favorite memories of Dad as a child was him reading me Nancy Drew books while I snuggled up on his lap.
33. One of my least favorite memories of Dad was him teaching me how to sweep the kitchen floor.
34. When I was a child and stayed home sick from school, he would always bring me home lollipops from Clarks Pharmacy.
35. He enjoys listening to music with one of his favorite songs being “Time to Say Goodbye”.
36. His favorite movie is “Saving Private Ryan”.
37. He once told me he loved “Field of Dreams” too because he wished he could have the chance to play ball with his father again.
38. As an adult, he used to call his mom every night after dinner.
39. Nothing makes him happier than knowing his kids have spent time together.
40. He can give you directions to anywhere.
41. As you drive through some obscure town on some obscure road you will often hear him say, “I’ve been here before”.
42. I’ve learned there is a BIG difference between “cutting” and “mowing” the lawn and many lawn companies hired by Dad over the years were let go for that very reason.
43. He’s a dog lover.
44. He served in the army and was stationed in Germany.
45. His favorite time of the year is summer.
46. He has a green thumb and his house on Nicholas Street had to be one of THE most beautiful yards I have ever seen.
47. The day they came to dig the hole for the pool was probably one of the hardest days of his life.
48. He swears the word “mature” is pronounced “mator”.
49. He has a real thing about “who” and “whom”.
50. He was a real stickler at meals when we were kids but we all grew up with impeccable table manners.
51. He loves wearing loafers.
52. He is blind in one eye and for most it would be a disability but for him it is a nonissue.
53. And no, Laura, he doesn’t have a glass eye.
54. Never wear a baseball cap at the table with he’s around.
55. He used to teach 8th grade CCD.
56. He used to coach a women’s softball team.
57. One of his favorite things to do is sit outside and smoke a cigar at the end of the day.
58. He loves the Sunday paper.
59. He watches Raymond every night.
60. He thinks reality shows are for the birds.
61. He loves to read about the Civil War.
62. He is a history buff.
63. He loves to travel with Ireland and Paris as his favorites.
64. He would go back to Paris in a heartbeat.
65. He had the neatest workbench of anyone I know except when Ricky came over and did his “magic” to the bench.
66. I think Dad’s best birthday party to date was his 60th birthday with Russel on crutches, me stating “I’m so sick” every two seconds, Ricky commentating with the video camera, Bill as the best dressed man at the party, Rose Kennedy in attendance and the story about the house Pricilla bought “right on the water”.
67. Some of Dad’s nicknames are Smitty, Swartz, Uncle Dickie, Papa and Pops.
68. He loves his business.
69. He will never quit working.
70. Sometimes he can be a little forgetful like the times he was supposed to take the trash home with him from the office but rarely remembered to take it. Danny would hear Kathy say, “and there he goes” as he would drive by the office window with the trash still sitting by the door.
71. Lovingly, he has been asked to never do the bookkeeping at the office when he’s on steroids.
72. His body has not been kind to him in recent years but he is a trooper and hardly ever complains.
73. He is a great “Pops” to all his grandchildren.
74. We are all so blessed to have him in our lives.
75. He may be a man of few words but he truly is a man with a golden heart.

Lacking...

To kill some time early yesterday morning, I took Nicholas and Gianna to Dunkin' Donuts. As we were sitting there eating our muffins and drinking hot chocolate, in walked business men and women all gussied up. In walked these young ladies looking all put together and fresh ready to tackle another day at the office or wherever they were going. And there I sat...in my sweat pants, sneakers, hair in a loose pony, exhausted and a little bored. At that exact moment as I was thinking to myself, "I'm feeling very invisible right now" Nicholas turns to me and says, "Mom, you are so beautiful". Exactly what I needed to hear. He snapped me right out of my pity party.

Spelling bee

Last night Danny was helping Nicholas with his kindergarten sight words. Bragging moment here...he knows all the sight words and then some so now we are working on spelling them. When Danny came to the word "we" Nicholas spelled "W-i-i". How sad it that!?!

My sister Kim

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Kimmy
Why don’t you read my blog?

Just joking. I know why she doesn't read my blog because she is just too darn busy with her crazy schedule. But just maybe she will read this one. In honor of my fun-loving sister who is forty-seven today, here are forty-seven fun facts about her.

1. Without question she is by far the happiest person I know.
2. I don’t think she has ever met a person in her lifetime that hasn’t liked her.
3. She loves all four seasons but her favorite is the summer.
4. She is a great lover of sports and in fact was quite the athlete herself.
5. She is a devoted Red Sox fan.
6. She has learned to never say these words again..."I'm just going to have a nice relaxing night and sleep in in the morning...".
7. In her twenties, she decided she wanted to play ice hockey so she taught herself to skate and joined a men’s league.
8. She is ultra competitive.
9. She is working on her doctorate…yes I said doctorate…at Boston College.
10. She tells everyone she is getting her doctorate just so I will have to call her “Dr. Smith”.
11. She has her undergraduate degree in music.
12. She can play “Misty” on almost every instrument known to mankind.
13. Her weakness is ice cream…pretty much any kind of ice cream.
14. On Saturday mornings, we used to watch Pee Wee's Playhouse and this really strange show on sign language and can still sign a few things to each other. And sad to say we were in our twenties at the time.
15. She loathes clothes shopping.
16. She introduced her best friend from college to her best friend from high school and they were later married and now live in Hawaii.
17. She is my concert buddy.
18. When we were kids she used to give me twisty-turny noogies.
19. The town where she works dedicated a day to her. Yes…a whole day called “Kim Smith day”. I told you everyone likes her.
20. She once conducted the Boston Pops at the Wang Center in Boston.
21. She went from the Director of Music one year to Vice Principal of her high school the next.
22. She has had her share of “Mary Tyler Moore” days.
23. Years ago on the first night alone in her new studio apartment there was almost a shoot out with police on her front lawn.
24. She played the clarinet growing up but decided in high school that it would be “fun” to learn how to play the trumpet. So of course she taught herself and played in the award winning jazz band.
25. She was student conductor of her high school and college marching bands.
26. She married her best friend Paula last year.
27. Kimmy and Paula bought this old house in Maine and over the years have restored it into this amazingly beautiful vacation get-away.
28. They both love boggie boarding in Maine and do this well after the summer is over. Brrrr....
29. She is the second of four siblings.
30. She is the peace-maker of the bunch.
31. Her favorite holidays are Christmas and 4th of July.
32. One of my favorite expressions of hers is “what next!” when something exciting is happening.
33. She “hearts” AJ from the Backstreet Boys. (I “heart” Howie.)
34. She has never had a cavity.
35. She had a lot of boyfriends in high school and I had crushes on practically all of them.
36. She’s a great auntie.
37. She has learned to cook recently thanks to Real Simple magazine.
38. She has no idea who most celebrities are because she is simply not interested.
39. Hand her a microphone in front of a crowd and she feels right at home.
40. She loves a cold beer with some nachos after a long day at the beach.
41. When she’s tired, she’s tired and can fall asleep anywhere.
42. My nickname for her is Skimmy Kimmy.
43. Her dog, Brandy boots, is her child.
44. She has great love and affection for each and every one of her students, past and present, at her high school.
45. Her students, past and present, have great love and affection for her in return.
46. She has a heart of gold.
47. Now go back and read number one again because it is the truth.

Wintertime

I love living in New England. Here we get to enjoy all four seasons in all their glory. Although I must admit by the time February rolls around I am ready for spring.

What I love most about snow days now is that I don't have to drive in it anymore. I remember the days when I had to leave extra early in the morning for work when it was snowing or going back and forth in my mind whether or not I should venture out in it at all. Driving in the snow is NOT fun. But now all I have to do is roll out of bed and walk down the hall to my home office. Ahhh...the benefits of working from home. I can work in my PJ's and take as many breaks as I like. No worries. I'm very, very lucky. That I am.

Love...the shoes

Finally...finally...finally Gianna loves a pair of nice, clean, new shoes! She is very funny when it comes to her feet. She always has to have socks on. She hates bare feet. She cries when you cut her toenails. Maybe she just has very sensitive feet. You can't even touch them. She goes crazy. For the longest time she wore this old pair of dirty sneakers. Even when we had her all dressed up she would only wear the dirty sneakers. Then I finally got her to wear a pair of simple black shoes from Target. But today Julia, Gianna and I were at the mall and walked into Payless. She found these pretty, sparkly, pink shoes and that was it. She ran around the whole store showing everyone her shoes. She looked in every mirror she could find. I was so happy that she was so happy about shoes I would have bought them if they were $100! But after all that, they were too big. Try explaining that to a two-year-old. I had the store call another location that did have her size. So she did end up with her shoes. She wore them for the rest of the day. How cute are they and how cute is she?





She is one happy girl!

And now for a quick Nicholas story. He usually gives Julia such a hard time. Rarely is he nice to her. But today was different for it was Valentine's Day. Danny and I gave them each a $1 in their cards today. Then they each got $3 from their Auntie Diane. So right after getting his $3 he turned to Julia and handed her a dollar and said, "Happy Valentine's Day, Julia". Is he not the sweetest boy in the world? He is my boy with the golden heart.

Potty training begins

Here we go again. Potty training take 3. Nicholas, Gianna and I went to Target the other day to pick up some new underwear for Gianna. Most kids get excited but not her. She threw a huge fit in the underwear aisle yelling..."no poopy potty"..."no Dora underwear". The girl doesn't like change. Just like her Daddy.

Tonight we put her on the potty for the first time. She just sat and sat. She kept saying, "I don't hear anything". Too cute. When I asked her where her pee was she said, "In my diaper in garage". And so it goes.

Gianna gets hurt...again

I have to talk about how accident prone Little Mae is. Although I have to say, in her defense, most of her injuries have been sibling related.

Let's start with the most recent injury that happened today. My afternoons are crazy. I have to leave the house by 11:45 to pick up Julia at kindergarten by 12:00. So I send Nicholas across the street to Patty and Fran's to have them put him on the bus just in case I don't make it back in time. The bus comes at 12:10. Today I pulled in the driveway just as the bus was heading down the street. I asked Julia to get Gianna out of her car seat thinking she would help her out of the car or I would have a few seconds to get him on the bus and make it back to the car in time. Just as I was walking back to the car, I see Gianna fall out of the car (think Honda Pilot which is very high off the ground) flat on her face. Her teeth went into her lip, cut on her chin, blood all over her face.

Or how about a few weeks ago at the furniture store when she tripped on a rug and fell head first into a glass table? I never saw sales people react so quickly with accident reports and cameras taking pictures of the accident scene. As if I was going to sue the store. You think I have time for that? Here she is just before the accident sitting next to the glass table. Of course I continued to multi task, holding a cold pack to her head and asking lots of questions about furniture. We bought two of these chairs and the sofa. The new furniture will be here tomorrow! I'm so excited to have some new furniture!



OK...sidetracked a bit. How about when she was about four months old and Nicholas head butted her knocking her unconscious briefly? Key word...briefly.

Or how about the second time she was knocked unconscious when Julia pulled her off the stairs and she fell backwards onto the flagstone?

 
She's actually been very lucky so far with no broken bones or stitches. Let's just hope it stays that way.

Holding my breath...

Just wishing things would stay the same. I got my wish in 2007 for an uneventful year. However somehow I don't think that will be the case for 2008. I don't like change. I want my days to just flow as they usually do. No bad news. No one sick. No one dying. My New Year started off with another death. Thankfully no one very close, but this is how it went down in 2006.

Maybe I'll be wrong. But it sure doesn't feel that way right now. I'm worried. I'm scared. But I will try to stay strong and think positive.

What we got for Christmas

The kids woke up to this under our tree...



Julia got a bike, this beautiful dollhouse, a diary, some makeup (that makes a big mess), a barbie styling head, some DVD's, and a CD player.

Gianna only cared about her lollipops she got in her stocking...

And Nicholas got a bike and lots and lots of cool gadget toys like this cool safe. An alarm sounds when someone without the code tries to break into it.

Even I got what I wanted. Danny bought me diamond earrings! This pair comes with screw on backs which I should have had with my first pair. Maybe this time I won't lose them.

Happy New Year? Sick, sick, sick & sick

So much for the fun New Year's Eve we had planned. We got hit with this awful stomach bug this weekend. First it was Nicholas. Then exactly two days later it was Julia, Danny and me...all at once. Good thing we have three bathrooms. Danny and I were all hunched over trying to get things for each other. Poor Gianna was walking around for two days with her diapers hanging down to her knees. It took all our energy to change her. I gave her a bag of Ritz Crackers to eat for breakfast. How bad is that? Nicholas was the cutest though. He told us he would be in charge and kept us warm with blankets, made cards for us, colored us pictures, left walkie talkies by our bed in case we needed him and brought us pans in case we couldn't make it to the bathroom. He is such a compassionate boy.

It's crazy how time passes at a snails pace when you have the stomach bug. I was wondering how and when I would ever get better. It's funny when you lose your health for a bit you just can't wait to get back to normal and do the laundry, cook and clean. Stuff that I tend to complain about but now am so happy to be doing again. Our house was in shambles so today I spent part of the day with the limited energy I had sterilizing the bathrooms, washing floors, doing laundry, washing all the sheets, blankets and towels. It's good to be feeling better again...and a few pounds lighter too which is my reward for making it through it all I guess.

Merry Christmas

Nicholas and Julia had their Christmas shows today. Julia and her class sang songs about Jesus while Nicholas' class, you know with public school and all, went the generic route with santa songs and the twelve days of Christmas.

Isn't Jesus the reason for the season?

Julia and her sweet friend, Kim.

Our three little ones.


The kids sang happy birthday to Jesus.

Mmmmm...those cupcakes were good!

The Nutcracker

Julia and I went to the Nutcracker today. We got all dressed up. I did her nails and hair before we left. We looked so pretty...and guess what...no camera! Danny had the diaper bag with him and I had put the camera in there the night before. Darn it! Julia was so cute. She literally counted the minutes away waiting for the show to start. She did great considering it was a little long for her. After the show I took her out to dinner to Applebees which is her favorite restaurant. She ordered a grilled cheese sandwich, french fries and applesauce. We got ice cream sundaes for dessert. We played endless games of tick tack toe, I Spy and hang man throughout dinner. It was so nice spending time with just one child. I really must do this more often. I know it's good for them to have my undivided attention but really it is good for me too as it is much more relaxing.

Funny story of the day: When we were parking the car, a woman attendant came to collect our money. She commented on how cold she was standing outside all day. After I gave her the money Julia said, "Mom, why did you give her money? Is she collecting money to buy herself a coat?"

La Salette Festival of Lights

We went to visit the La Salette Shrine again this year. They celebrate Christmas with the Festival of Lights and have over 300,000 lights on the trees and around the grounds. It is so amazingly beautiful. My pictures do not do it justice. It looked especially pretty this year because it had snowed this week.

We lit candles for Danny's Mom and Dad.

There were hundreds of sparkling candles that had been lit by visitors of the shrine.

The kids had the most fun climbing on the huge snow banks!

The Game of Perfection

Our house was always full of kids when we were growing up. Kids loved my mom and our house was the house to hang out at. One Christmas when I was about eleven years old and my older sister Kim was about fifteen, she had a Christmas party with a bunch of her friends. They played Christmas music, strung popcorn, ate junk food and so on. I was in a grumpy mood that night. I have no idea why. But one of my favorite people was there that night. My sister's friend Joe. He lived a few houses down from us and was at our house almost every day. He became part of our family. Even if my sister wasn't home he would come over to visit and play cards with my Mom or spend time talking to my Dad listening to his advice.

I really liked Joe because Joe really liked me. He never treated me like some pesky little sister. I remember the night of that Christmas party, Joe invited me to sit on the couch next to him and sing Christmas carols even though I was in a no good bad mood and didn't want to sing. Just that gesture of him including me made me feel good. That was Joe. He was kind. He was the "good" one in his very large family of ten kids. He never got into trouble. Joe was also the only one at the party to show up in a suit but that was him. He loved the holidays, especially Christmas.

That Christmas one of my gifts was the game Perfection. For weeks after Christmas, Joe would play that game with me and we would have competitions as to who would get the better time before the pieces popped out all over the place. Even today when I play that game with my kids, I think of Joe and our competitions.

After Joe and my sister graduated high school, we didn't see much of Joe anymore. He went into the service and eventually became a state trooper in New Hampshire, got married and had a son.

I remember the last time I saw Joe. He was in his twenties by then and just stopped by my Mom's house with another friend to visit. We sat at our kitchen table and played cards with my mom, just like the old days. I had not seen him in years but he was as handsome and happy as ever. He had this great infectious smile and such a wonderful joy for life.

Fast forward to November of 1989. Joe was 28 years old with an 8-month old son. He was killed in the line of duty in a car accident as he and another officer were transporting a prisoner. Crazy how I've outlived him by so many years now. I visit his grave each spring as he is buried near my foster brother, Glenn.

My family loved Joe. We were all there for him at the end praying for him to pull through. And when he didn't, we were all there to pay respect to him and his family at his funeral along with hundreds of police officers.

I know you are in heaven shining down on all of us. This was truly your favorite time of the year and I just want you to know that our family will always think of you with great affection, and never forget you, your kindness or your passion for life.

You were good...like perfection. Merry Christmas Joe. :)

Joseph Gearty 1961-1989

Ornaments

We put up our Christmas tree today. I love going through our box of ornaments each year. There are a few that I hold near and dear to my heart. Like these...

This is Nicholas' first ornament from 2001. After waiting years and years for his arrival, I couldn't wait to hang this on our tree. He was four months old his first Christmas.

We had no idea that the very next Christmas we would be hanging another baby ornament on the tree. Julia was also four months old for her first Christmas.

This ornament was given to me by an old boyfriend's sister-in-law. I thought it was such a sweet gesture.


My friend Sandy gave me this ornament after living in Vienna for a time.

This Santa ornament belonged to Danny's mom.

My sister Kim and I have a tradition of going shopping some place fun just days before Christmas each year. My sister bought this one for me on one of those trips.

Nicholas made this ornament in school last year at Little Blessings...my favorite school of all time.


I bought this dancer ornament for Julia last year for her first year in dancing school.

And this is my favorite ornament. The cradle. It was given to me by my dear friend Joann who helped me through those dark days of infertility. She gave it to me as a symbol of hope. She said her grandmother used to give a cradle ornament to her grandchildren when they were just married with hopes of having children someday. It guess it really works...

My sixth sense

Sometimes I wonder about this strange sixth sense I have. Out of the blue random people just pop into my mind. Usually it is people I don't really know well or haven't seen in years. I think about them just briefly and then the thoughts are gone. Poof. And then I get a phone call telling me something about the person I was thinking about. Here are some examples.

One day out of the blue the name of this girl, Denise, popped into my head. I used to teach her dance at my sister's studio when she was a young girl. I'm sure she must be in her late twenties by now. I have not thought about this girl in years and years. I thought about how beautiful she was and how much I enjoyed teaching her. That's it. Then the thoughts were gone. A few days later, my sister called to tell me that she heard from friends that Denise was engaged to be married and her fiance had died suddenly.

On another day I randomly thought about this girl, Diane, that I was friends with in grade school. I didn't hang around with her much after that although we did graduate high school together. I haven't seen her or spoken to her since high school. My thoughts were about how we used to play together as kids and that was it. The thoughts were gone. The next day my dad called to tell me that he had gone to physical therapy the day before. And guess who his physical therapist was...this girl Diane.

Yesterday, out of the blue I was thinking about Danny's friend Mark and his wife. She is pregnant with their third child. Although I know Mark very well, I really don't know his wife very well. I was thinking about how with each pregnancy they have the ultrasound technician write down the sex of the baby and put it into an envelope. When they go home they give the envelope to her father to open. I was thinking how it was a little strange to me but who am I to be critical of her relationship with her dad? I was thinking about how close they must be and how important it is for her to have her dad know first. Then a few hours later the phone rang. It was Danny calling to tell me that Mark had just called him to say his father-in-law has terminal cancer. He has less than a year to live.

How does this happen?

Grateful Friday

Me and my beautiful girls.

Memory Junkie

I will admit that I am a memory junkie although I HATE clutter. Danny and I have had more arguments about me throwing away stuff that he said was important. Like random scrap pieces of paper that he has written phone numbers on that I thought was trash. I have even on occasions thrown out mail that I thought was junk mail when in fact it was something important. But when it comes to memories I absolutely cannot part with it. I have boxes and boxes of stuff that I think is important.

Like this...

A teen magazine from 1978 when my world revolved around Shaun Cassidy...my diary from 4th grade talking about my crush on a cute boy in school named Timmy...and an old jewelry box full of notes from grade school friends.

And then there are my journals. I have more than what is even shown in the picture below. Most are from the 80's and 90's. I started writing in journals in 9th grade and still write in them today. I'm not great about writing in them daily though. Sometimes I'll go months without writing but it is so fun to look back over a years' time to see what was happening in my life. Oh, the drama!

Since I don't always write in my journals daily, I have these....

Pocket calendars. I pick them up at the Hallmark store or at CVS every December. I live by these. I usually track my weight, menstrual cycles, appointments, birthdays, etc. I can look back ten or twenty years ago and see what I was doing (or gaining or losing...)

Then there are the boxes of notes from my friends when we were in high school (which are just hysterical) and letters and cards from family, friends and old boyfriends from when I lived away at college. Every once in a great while I will pull out those boxes and just sit and laugh and sometimes even cry.

And of course there are the pictures, pictures and more pictures. Since I am quite the neat freak most are in photo albums, in order and by date.

Now that I have kids in preschool and kindergarten I have all the stuff they make and draw. I have a big plastic bin where I store all my favorite things they have made and worked on. I'm sure I'll be adding more bins as the years go on.

So I will own up to it..."My name is Dini and I'm a memory junkie".

Thought for the day

I drive by this church every day that has a billboard out front with different sayings. My favorite one recently was this "aspire to inspire before you expire". It made me laugh but it does make you think, doesn't it?

My Sister Kerry

I'm happy to say that my sister, Kerry, has started her own blog! (Big yippee on my end!) She is a creative soul and is looking for a place to express all her ideas. Her body hasn't been kind to her over the years. She had to give up what she loves most in this world...teaching and choreographing...but is still hopeful that she will be able to share her knowledge with others. Kerry has a great idea that she is working on (with my very talented brother) and will hopefully soon be able to start on this new endeavor. She gave me the dancing bug when I was a little girl and I'm hoping that bug will spread to my two little girls.

Feast Day

Happiness...being with extended family...cousins playing together...having so much fun even though years separate them...good food...funny stories...happy feast day.

My favorite love stories

I'm a sucker for romance. I was looking through a magazine the other day and they had listed the most romantic movies for each year for the past twenty years. Practically all of my favorite movies were listed. What I consider romantic is two people falling in love and knowing it's for a lifetime. And of course most of these movies have leading men who are beyond sexy and good looking.

So here's my top ten movie list for the most romantic love stories of all time.

Honorable Mention: My Best Friend's Wedding - Cameron Diaz and Julia Roberts are so adorable and funny in this movie and Dermot Mulroney is a cutie.

10) Dirty Dancing - OK so these two probably didn't end up together but it was a great movie. A guy who can dance masculine and is hot.
9) Untamed Heart - I rented this movie on a whim years ago and totally fell in love with it. Christian Slater is adorable in this movie.
8) The Holiday - Jude Law is to die for.
7) Fried Green Tomatoes - Unexpected love. No cute guys but I fell in love with Kathy Bates and Mary-Louise Parker.
6) Legends of the Fall - This movie has lots of love stories going on. And Brad Pitt with long hair...oh my goodness.
5) Knotting Hill - Waiting patiently for the one you love to realize they want it too.
4) Brokeback Mountain - I cried my eyes out over that darn shirt.
3) Titanic - Sweet and pationate young love.
2) Say Anything - That high school crush that ends up being the real deal. Everyone should fall in love with a Lloyd Dobler. I know I did...trenchcoat, hightops and all.
1) The Notebook - Nothing in my book beats this love story.

The Power Ranger, The Fairy, and the little girl who wouldn't put on a costume

Here are my cuties on Halloween. Gianna woke up in a foul mood after her nap and refused to put on her costume. It's funny how different they are from each other. Nicholas couldn't wait for Halloween. He loves everything about it. He goes trick or treating for hours while Julia on the other hand could care less about it. She went to about five houses and was done. She doesn't like chocolate or any candy for that matter. I guess that is a good thing, right? I guess only time will tell whether Gianna will like it or not.

Potty Mouth

Nicholas came home from kindergarten yesterday and told us he learned a new song. At least he gave us fair warning that it was going to be inappropriate but sang it anyway. It was a variation of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" with not too nice lyrics. I really, really tried not to overreact...really I did...and asked him who taught him that song. He told me a boy in his class did. This is kindergarten! How this infuriates me. I know I can't shelter my kids forever but can I at least make it through kindergarten? Because Nicholas is my oldest he isn't exposed as much to this stuff. I'm finding it harder and harder to keep the inappropriate words, actions, etc. away from him. He has many friends with older siblings. I'm just sad I guess. My baby is growing up and heading out into the real world...I guess where they learn things much, much earlier these days.

Just so you know I did write the teacher a note and she did speak to the boy. Let's hope no one else had to learn the new lyrics to Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Haunted House Part II

OK Brooke...this is for you! Just so you know, the house I'm talking about is the one in front of the old dance studio.

Just the other day, my sister Kerry mentioned that she was walking up the stairs on the outside of the house and went by one of the apartment windows. She saw someone inside and the window was ajar. She was going to say a quick "hi" when she noticed the person standing there wasn't who she thought it was and then it quickly vanished.

Recently my Mom was in her dining room and rather preoccupied when she heard a voice in her front hall say "hello". She automatically said "hello" back and started to go see who it was when she realized that there shouldn't be anyone in her apartment. And of course there was no one there.

Many years ago, my sister and brother were in the basement of the house. No one else was in the house that day. At one point they heard someone walking around in the kitchen above them, opening drawers, etc. My brother called out "Dad?" because at the time he used to work in that house. When no one answered he went up to the top of the stairs only to find the kitchen was completely dark and nobody around. Yikes!

Then there is the funny story about one of Kerry's dance students working on a solo in the house studio and she was doing some turns and couldn't stop. That story always cracks me up!

So yes, we all think that house is haunted. I know what I have experienced and to me they were all very, very real.