Happy Halloween!

Just posting the reno shots from Mom's, figuring out how to add photos to the blog, so thanks for bearing with me!
We had a beautiful mass with Father Mark this morning, even got to sit with the Arbors! Father talked about wisdom, a challenging topic. Allowing GODS wisdom to blossom in me means admitting that I don't know everything...how tough is that?  So GODS wisdom is my goal for this week, and I'll let you know how I do!
We had a great afternoon at the house, Ryan and Danny spent about 2 hours on the trampoline! Dinner at Shawne's before the kids went out trick or treating, nice to have a home base on Fairway Trls, thanks Wisbo's.

Happy Halloween!

Reno at Mom's

Packing and Pumpkins and Parties, Oh My!

Woke up pre-stressed with the need to get my stuff off to Fed-Ex by 12 noon, this pre-job work is pretty significant. As I'm getting started on that Charlotte shows up in the kitchen with my I LOVE LUCY board game.."hey Mom, wanna play?"  so what could I say? Danny joined us and Charlotte kicked our dupas! I got to act out Lucy being in a fashion show with a sunburn...I could relate!  Danny and Jerry headed off to the library for the Spooky Monster Magic Show, girls headed off for a run and I went to FedEx(their getting to know me!)  But happily I made it to the end of the magic show, and took over for Jer. Danny and i stopped at Meijer to get some free candy and silly bands!  The sun comes out for the afternoon and we play frisbee, football and carve pumpkins. They look amazing.  The girls volunteered at bowling from 2-4 and we even snuck in some football viewing..GO Hawkeyes!...before heading out to the parties. The girls came to St. Pats first, then headed to Heather's house.  Jer drove,then headed home to watch a little ball, while I got  to share my big news with Rhonda, and visit with the other school Mom's.  Danny was beet red within 15min, ran around the whole time with his pals, and had a blast. Danny and I finished up the night with some Wallace and Gromet shorts,, A Close Shave and The Wrong Trousers  with Shawne the sheep! and Penn State beat Michigan, so my work here is done!

Friday-10/29 Workin' on the chain gang!

Whoo-papa! 9am - 9pm at good old Brighton District Library!  We started out with the Mother Goose Cafe,Halloween Parade and Storytime.  The kids were awfully restless but looked adorable in their costumes. We had princesses, dracula with a pacifier, an itsy-bitsy spider, and lots of cute pumpkin outfits.
Highlight for me was after the whole story time, with me dancing and hopping around, as a Dad is leaving, he comes over to me and leans in...I think that he is going to thank me and say he had a good time, so I look up and smile and he says "You know,  your costume is see-thru!"  Oh my GOSH! What am I supposed to say?Wish I had said "there's no extra charge!"  but I wasn't that quick.
Stayed after hours to help with the Teen pumpkin carving contest, with fabulous pumpkins provided by Farmer Hank from Posen,MI. With the library budget cuts the donation was really appreciated.  Plus I got to work with Anne and Roseanne, no one in the place I'd rather spend a Friday night with!
The kids headed off to BBall with Super Dad;every one of the remaining 7 seats was full!
With the still painful Ivy I was happy to finally sit down around 10 and slather on my creams and potions.  This ivy needs to start calming down...

Thursday-10/28 Countdown to Halloween

No one's even had extra sugar and the frenzy has begun! Lots of last minute changes but the final decision stands at..
1. Molly-butterfly fairy
2. Charlotte-piratey person ala Jack sparrow hair
3. Danny-Army guy in his class B fatigues
4. Kerry-snow princess*
I'll be costumed tomorrow for the Halloween Parade at the library, the kids all have parties on Saturday night, and then dinner and Trick or Treating at Shawne's and Fairway Trails. A great weekend is in store!

*Finally located the snow princess costume I bought on clearance at Target 3 Years ago, but keep finding in the basement on Nov. 1!!!

Rainy Thursday-my life is NOT thrilling!

Reality of blogging is setting in...life is BORING!  Talking about bargains at Wal-mart seems silly, but I guess if that's my life...So got $0.39 a pound bananas, new contacts, and a loaf of everything french bread-YUM!
Made a kind of pasta,bean,tomato and chicken dish that everyone inhaled. And a chocolate cake off the day old baked goods rack, for NO GOOD REASON, we're just celebrating life! I had to take another trip to the Doctor(Dr. Lipman, thanks for squeezing me in!) who changed all my meds, new creams, new oral pred. but i couldn't have another shot, it is too soon.  Still feeling quite crappy,itchy and in pain, so I'm taking the nighttime pain med, hope i don't get any reaction to it, as I have to lead the Halloween parade at the library in the am.

What a treasure are our friends-Wed 10/27

Back to the routine at 6:15 this am, coffee, lunches, but best of all hugs and conversation with the kids! Danny brought in a couple of pumpkins for Mrs. Bittekoffer's two kids, on Tuesday Jerry and Danny delivered the 30 pumpkins for his classmates and teacher, and the giant painted one for the office.  Pumpkin man! This is the 5th year that Farmer Hank has helped his Godson learn about generous giving. Thanks Hank! What a blessing my friends are! I had lots of phone messages and emails from the time I was gone and lots to catch up on. Shawne brought Leah to the house at 2pm to do a photo shoot for Molly.  Mol was so much fun, Leah even got her on the trampoline for the first time!  We shot about 300 pictures, both here and at the metro park, and ended the shoot with a Zukey Lake dinner reward.  Nothing says Good Job like a wet burrito, you know what I'm saying?!
The only bad news is that the Evil Ivy continues to torture me, hoping that this third day of meds does the trick.  I am so happy and blessed to have Shawne in my life, and Leah, they really make ours days happy.  The community connections here are very strong, and even though the family is in NJ, it feels like home here because of my friends.  Have you ever had that experience? They say friends are the family you pick for yourself, and if that's true, my "family" is amazing!
Benadryl kicking in, off to bed.

Tuesday=tying it all together and traveling

Kickin it by 6:30; second coat on the doors, drop clothes rolled up, supplies cleaned up and stowed. New bedsets on, pictures being hung, curtains artfully twisted about the rods, vacuuming, mirror cleaning, Dunkin run, all the last minute details that always take longer than you think its going to.  We do a mini-reveal for Mom's friend Sue, who stops in to check on us, and she thinks it looks awesome!  She thinks Mom will cry, but I don't know, Patsy's not much of a cryer!  She'll be home on Friday and I'll be excited to hear what she thinks.  Susan left a note from us taped to her bedroom door...
We took of for Parsippany about 1ish and I loaded my car and shoved off towards MI by about 3pm. White-knuckle rain through half of PA (raining so hard I couldn't drink my coffee, so you know it was bad!) and an hour nap in the back seat in a cozy Ohio rest area (thanks for the pillow and blanket Sooz!) and I got home around 2am. With the help of my steroids I throw in a load of wash,sweep the kitchen floor and blog!
I'm going to try to make myself sleep, it's good to be back, and I can't wait to hug my kids in the morning!

itchy,itchy,scratchy,scratchy,ooo I got some on my back-y!

Mom's Bedroom remodel and yard work continues, and Susan and I are at the dump at 9am with 2 carloads of ivy vines,leaves and branches.  The landscaping guys filling their trucks with free mulch look on in awe(?) as 2 middle-aged Mom types clad in paint spattered pajama bottoms use a snow shovel to scoop mulch into black garbage bags and hoist them into their sedans! Back we go, dump the mulch, fill cars again and back to the dump.  At our breakfast break I realize that the couple of suspicious looking spots from yesterday are too large and itchy to ignore anymore, and I have Sooz take a look....looks like the evil ivy has struck again.  It's  worsening by the hour so we make an appointment with a DR. for the afternoon.  This was not planned into the work schedule!  Doc. confirms the poison ivy(by this point it is really painful and I know all to well what to expect) and I get the shot in the dupa, medrol dose pack, topical cream and benadryl.  What a pain!  Susan and Donnie are spared, and the Doctor says I've probably developed a hypersensitivity, rather than a tolerance.  When I ask what I can do for next time he says "hire someone!" So off we go to hunt down curtains, and prescription drugs.  We spend the evening painting doors, windows, spraying headboards and a rocker,aerating and overseeding the lawn and other exciting little jobs.  The only good thing about steriods is you really don't need to sleep much!

Lovely Lilac rolls in to Forelle Lane

At the Home Depot at 8am picking up the paint for the bedroom, get home and find out the guy only mixed 1 of 3 gallons! AAAHH! Hope this isn't a predictor of the project. This is a large room and Susan and I get rolling(pun intended!).  Donnie tackles more Ivy, our ruthless path of destruction is almost complete! Going back to the Depot to get the paint shook is a pain, but we drive right by the Dunkin Donuts, which eases my pain quite a bit! Donnie has to trim out the 15 foot high spots, but Sooz and I do the rest, Pandora-ing to Bruce, Southside,Billy Joel, and some old favourites like Yaz, Depeche Mode and Eurythmics. Donnie's off at 2 to get back home to visit Catherine, who just got home from a business trip.  Sooz and I go shopping at 4ish while the paint drys, to work on bedspreads, curtains,etc. that's the part I really like! Also the part where we stop at a great Jersey pizza place and get a meatball parm sandwich and a chicken calzone--oh yeah!
Lots to do tomorrow, but on that show housecrashers they do it in 3 days, so why can;t we? Wish us luck!

Saturday; The Evil Ivy--Take 12!

We arrived at Mom's in Toms River at 10:30 and got right to work..The Evil Ivy has marched across most of the back lawn and looks to be headed for the house on its mission of complete domination. We will vanquish this foe no matter what the cost (in landscape fabric,mulch, poison ivy relief products!) We yanked, hacked,pulled, raked, bundled,hauled to the dump, and yanked some more.  It is looking good, but we will need to be ever vigilant...we have a couple of more dump runs planned for Monday, it's alot of shrubbery!
The other big project is painting Mom's bedroom, a beautiful large space with 15 foot walls and ceilings(Thanks for the ladder Phil!).  The color Mom chose is the lavender I'm typing in!  We had gorgeous weather on Saturday so we spent most of our time outside working on the yard. We had dinner together, then Mom and I discussed colors and decor plans, while Susan and Donnie did a bit of family genealogy.  It was so funny to be back to our straight nuclear family, us kids and Mom, no husbands,wives,kids...we joked that she should tuck us in!  I don't know if we've done that since we all left home.  What a treat to spend that time together. Mom heads off Sunday for her trip to Folly Beach,NC with her girlfriends. She will be in for a surprise when she comes back-a fresh updated bedroom.

New Marriage- very challenging and inspiring!

Niki and Mike were married at Notre Dame of Mount Carmel on Friday October 22,2010. Beautiful fall flowers, pretty bridesmaids, stunning Mother-of the-Bride (go Meg!) and of course a beautiful bride and handsome groom, glowing with love and excitement. Congratulations!! The reception was really fun, I got to hang with all my cousins (Happy Birthday Danny!) and do alot of my 2 favourite things, talking and dancing! But I want to share with you the best part of the wedding, which was the mass. seriously..not even the chocolate fountain topped it!
The Priest who said mass was Fantastic, he should record his wedding mass and send it to other churches around the country as a demo! First thing he said was that Niki,Mike and JESUS had invited us, and Jesus knew we'd be there and was so happy to see us and to pray with us. During his homily he talked about the 4 marriage killers, sarcasm (spoken or unspoken),pettiness,anger and greed.  At the end he said that none of our possessions are ours, and in the end we'll just have our love, so keep it strong.  He told Niki that her only job on this earth is to bring Mike into Heaven, and Mike's only job is to make sure that she goes there with him. Wow!  Llistening to the vows after that was very inspiring, but also really challenging.  How well are those ideals being played out in my own life and marriage (after 23 years?!) Gotta put some work and prayer into that for sure! It's hard to do the ceremony justice (you know, the old... "You shoulda been there, it was sooo good!") but there is one story Father told that I have to share...
When he was 15, he was having a fight with his Mom one day in the kitchen. She was yelling at him, he was yelling at her and about 5 minutes into the argument she said, " let's dance the polka!" He said to her, "Ma, we're having an argument, we're NOT gonna dance the polka."  She shrugged and they went back to the fight, he yelled some more, she yelled some more, but after about 35 seconds his Mom said again, "honey, lets dance the polka!" He Said, "MA, we're having a fight, we can't dance the polka."  His Mom said, "Honey, when you're yelling, I'm thinking about what I'm going to say next, and when I'm yelling, you're thinking about what you're going to say next and neither one of us is listening at all.  I love you, and so, let's dance!  And they danced the polka!
Given the fact that I'm married to a big polack I thought this was especially applicable! Seriously, doesn't it really make you think about those fights, and ask yourself wouldn't it be way more fun to grab hands and start stomping around the kitchen to a polka tune?!  "She likes kielbasa, she likes kielbasa, she likes kielbasa, thats her dish (2,3,4..)  Let's start dancing!

hitting the road-Thursday morning

Up and out the door at 5:50am, bound for Jersey!  I am going to attend my cousin Meg's daughter Niki's wedding! As I'm traveling along I put on satellite radio and while spinning along the dial happen to pass by  Catholic Radio. The show is talking about the readings for the day, and how they will impact our lives...I stop to listen and the host explains that the reading is a letter from St. Paul to the Ephesians..Jesus is saying"I have come to set the world on fire, oh how I wish it was already burning" ! Talk about a GOD wink! This must be a  message, and I am continuing to focus on how I should be setting myself on fire first, then maybe the world!
The trees in Pennsylvania are at the peak of their colours, green hills rolling up into oranges,yellows and browns where the tree line comes in. The road was empty and the weather was great..trip only took 8hrs.45min.

(Tip to those who travel 80 through PA- only Dunkin Donuts is at exit 120!)

Enjoyed hanging out with  the nieces and nephews and hearing the latest school and sport news-Claire's play, Jamie's cross country, Allie's awesome standardized test scores and Christopher's class website-including his own home page with a latitude and longitude video-very educational!
Today I guess I moved froward Geographically!

not an "Ordinary Day"

Wednesday night..Ann Arbor MI..Michigan Theatre..All five of us jumping up and down to the fabulous band  Great Big Sea.

 Danny jigging in the aisle to "Lukey's Boat is painted green, ah, me boys."

Jerry chanting  "oh me oh my I heard the old one cry, oh me oh my I think I'm gonna die, oh me oh my I heard the old one say, I wish I'd never taken that excursion around the bay,HEY!"

Charlotte doing some serious air guitar to "The Old Black Rum"

Molly chanting.."oh the night that Paddy Murphy died is a night I'll never forget..some Michigan girls got loaded drunk...and they ain't been sober yet!"

And for me, it was hearing "Ordinary Day" live, it is such a true song. I have the lyrics taped up inside my cupboard.."way hey hey it's just an ordinary day and it's all your state of mind...at the end of the day, you've just got to say it's all right!"
So true, no matter what is going on in life, it's all your state of mind. And my state today is grateful!  This concert was so much fun, and such a great family time( crazy Irish lyrics notwithstanding! just a trifle disconcerting to see your 9 year old singing gleefully ...."I swear to GOD I'll hang meself if I get married again!" but it was all in good fun!)
So, with blisters on my hands from all the clapping, it was a terrific, special, Ordinary day!

blazing forward!

I had the chance to attend a lecture series that started last night called BLAZING FAITH. Wow!  That is an area that I want to move forward in every day.  Father Mark gave an outline for the series, which is basically about setting yourself on fire for the person of JESUS CHRIST.  Hot Stuff!  This year I definitely want to seek out ways to grow in my faith and share it with others, and this seems like a good starting place.  Came home with loads of reading suggestions, and for me that is a challenge.  Even though I want to seek more, putting aside the fiction book or HGTV for the Bible is tough.  So I am making a commitment to read more scripture this year...and I know GOD will work in me through that!

Second verse...same as the first!

Day two of my blog and I'm still trying to get in the groove...do you blog in the evening about the day? (too tired!) Or if you do it the next morning about the day before is that cheating?!  I think in the morning is what I'm going to try, so tomorrow I'll let you know how today went! Can you stand the suspense?

It's my birthday and I'll Blog if I want to!

My plan for this 49th year is to do something everyday to move myself forward, mentally,physically,gastronomically, athletically,spiritually. I will be 50 in one year, whether I like it or not, so I'm going to see if I can end up, one year from now, having grown,changed, or at the very least become a faster keyboarder! Read along, comment, make suggestions, join me, and we'll see how it goes....

Today I am 49 years old, and yesterday in the shower (how many of you Moms do your best thinking in the shower..you're alone!) I was thinking about turning 49 and all the things I should do this year. Then I thought I should write in a journal this year,to keep track of all the things I do.. then I remembered that the part I like best about journaling is buying the journal at the store, not actually writing in it and how many journals I own with the first 3 pages written in..then nothing! They look so cool in the store and I imagine myself writing insightful things and my great-great grandkids all gathering around it someday and thinking how cool it was the I made this record of my life in the olden days.  But then I don't, and they lay on my desk, or next to my bed, or in the closet, and when I see them I feel guilty. Are you with me?!
So a blog it is, and my first new forward moving thing is already accomplished at 8am!