Mom's Taxi at your service!

Oh yeah, the Tuesday drive, to HSchool ,home, to ST. Pats, home, back to Hschool to get Charlotte, drop her at St. Pats for work, home, go get Charlotte, take her back to school, go get molly in howell, go to St. Pats to pick up Danny, drop him at home with Charlotte,take Molly to dentist, home ,serve dinner, take Charlotte,Danny and I to dentist, then home!(meanwhile Jer did the run of Molly to her second dress rehearsal out in Pickney)
So day is good, but in spite of my best efforts, not alot gets done! AAarrgh!
Should be upstairs packing, the car is coming at 6am, so I better stop writing and talk more tomorrow.
ps. no one had any cavities!

okay I lied!- Monday 11/29 Leah's Birthday!

Okay, so it's tonight! Sorry, it was a busy day! So yesterday..Monday...tried to get alot done.Charlotte was pretty traumatized about going back to school, thanks to Mr. V for helping with that transition. Molly and Danny went back no sweat.  Danny's fundraiser came in, so after school we took Leah's cake and went over to FT. Danny and Jack delivered all the goodies, and then we joined the Wisbo's for a sloppy joe supper. We all had activities to get to so it was quick but fun! Leah loved her Pillow Pal- As seen on TV! and her outfit and game. Can't believe she is five! Still pretty nuts over there with Mike's Mom's 2 dogs..Shawne is a saint to have them so long. Prepping for our trip on Wednesday.

tommorrow-in the morning--first thing!

I am so tired, I'll see you in the morning! Sleep well!

The Vacation is over-Not a moment too soon!

To start Sunday on a gourmet note I made a nice breakfast of pumpkin waffles with homemade cranberry syrup.  I got great reviews, and since I had never done that before, I can put it on my "Forward" list.
Okay, the girls are completely on my nerves, Jers, Danny's and each others! I guess its time to go back to school.  Today was a good one though, we were able to shoot over to church and help load over 1000lb's of donated food into the traverse and drive it to Gleaners food bank. We helped unload and were still back home in one hour!  Love teaching the kids that a little bit of time goes such a long way for the community.  Jerry and I tackled the branch that was hanging into the roof by our bedroom. After climbing on to the roof(too steep and slippery!) and moving the ladder a bunch of times, we finally got the vines that had twisted around the branch off! Go US! at one point Jer and I were literally swinging on the vine(can you picture it? we were like Tarzan and Jane!) Jer got all the outdoor furniture tarped up, and we put up more decorations.  It is so nice to be almost done and its not even December! I hope this will allow for relaxing and reading Christmas stories and watching Christmas movies.
This evening it was back to making lunches and organizing clothes,backpacks,etc.  Have a great week friends!

It's hard being a Mom

Saturday, November 27, 2010

It's hard being a Mom

You know you need to teach your kids things; like how to behave, not to leave the seat up in the bathroom, not to snort milk out of your nose when you laugh at the dinner table, treat a date like you would want someone to treat your sister, don't take the last pancake, hold the door for someone...but the intangibles are so hard. How to teach optimism, perseverance, follow through with tasks, pride in self care(and awareness of..) these things are much harder. Struggling with that today, and concentrating on giving it to GOD. Went to mass right after work today, and Father Mark talked about JOY! which as you know is one of my favourite words( Danny was going to be Joy if he was a girl!) He reminded us that this is a joyous season and we should express that. And that there is nothing we can do for JESUS, he doesn't need anything from us.  All he wants is to be our saviour, and since we need a saviour, we should let him. OK! On my knees asking him this week to fill me with the joy of his love and presence and to save me and my kids. Are you with me?
Tonight for dinner we had pasta with homemade sauce that Jer and the kids had made from the fresh tomatoes from the farm. It was so good, they had done a great job.  We even had Gus's breadsticks to swish around our bowls to get all the sauce up...so good!  We played 4 rounds of UNO after dinner, and we shut Molly out! this may be a record(and the source of her post game crabby-ness!) Jer=2, Charlotte=1 and Danny=1.  Danny and Jerry are watching Lord of the Rings for the first time together.  Danny is really psyched. He loved the book series, and has been anxious to see the movie.
So JOY this week as advent begins-GOD has sent his only son to earth for us, to be our saviour-say YES to him!

Black Friday

I went out! Got up at 5:30 and headed out into the cold....did you? How did things go for you?  I went to Target, and while I got all I wanted, I did have to wait on line for 1 hour to pay.  Oh my!  But as you can imagine everyone was happy and friendly, and I downloaded an ebook program to my phone and downloaded some free books, and read the first 2 chapters of Little Women
while I waited.  I took home my booty, refueled with some coffee and grabbed Charlotte and headed to wal-mart.  Got there about 9:30 and I still got lots of bargains and no lines...better than Target for sure, and they price match so no worries about missing another stores deals.  I also got more done on the village, cleaned out the pantry,worked more in the storage room and various other chores. Go Me!  I'm working tomorrow, but it will be good to get out of the house for a bit, alone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

GOD has blessed me that's for sure! Thank you for my home and family, for my husband's job, for my job, for the kids, for Special Olympics, for St. Pat School, friends, coffee, Marshalls, my Mom,sister and brother, HGTV, Lucky Charms, libraries and cameras..not necessarily in that order! I hope you had a wonderful day!
Well we got up at 5:15 and headed downtown! We brought all our cold weather gear because they said it was going to be cold and rainy/snowy, but thankfully they were wrong. It had stopped raining by the time we arrived and parked, and as they morning went on it got better.  the sun never came out, but the temp was around 40, so the running weather was perfect.  Guess how many people ran??  17,500.  Seriously. It was amazing!   Molly was up on the grandstand, and we all piled up behind her. She greeted the runners and wished them a good race, then said.."Runners Take Your Mark" , at that point they were supposed to blow an air horn, but they couldn't find it! So the MC takes the mic and basically hoots into it in an attempt to simulate an air horn! Hilarious! Anyway, we had time to thank our host, climb off the podium, circle down to where we could enter the start chute, and head off, in the middle of the pack.  Danny blazed the trail for the Hinckas, but no one could run for time because of the crowds(that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) Danny ran a 29:33, I ran a 29:50, Jer ran 34:57 and the girls 10K times were Charlotte 59:46, and Molly 1:04.  After a couple of hairy moments at the finish trying to round everyone up, we grabbed the free bagel and banana and headed back to the parade route.  Jack Riley of Fifth/Third Bank, who sponsors the race, had given us grandstand tickets, and they turned out to be in the TV zone, where all the groups do their best stuff in front of the cameras. It was awesome!  The Cass Tech High School band could give many other bands some serious "get down" lessons! they were my favourite band.  The parade closed with Santa, of course, and Mayor Bing gave him the key to the city.  We headed home then, after making our way through the crowds, and taking some photos(check tomorrow for pics!)  We all took hot showers and ate when we got back around 1pm. And then I put my turkey in.  Danny and I baked an apple pie together which turned out delicious, and we had a pie break around 5, followed by dinner around 7.  Danny and I started on the village, unpacking all the boxes and starting to set up.  I opened my package from Susan and it was a new piece! A pizza place and deli, which lights up, it is a perfect addition and soo Jersey!  Trying to decide if I'm going out tomorrow morning..how about you guys? Are you gonna do it?  Keep me posted!
Happy Thanksgiving to All, and may GOD continue to bless you.

Who's sick of Black Friday??!

OMG! Is it just me or is the black Friday build-up insane? I just don't remember all this hulabaloo in years past. We have had the pre-black Friday sale, the beat black-Friday sale by shopping on thanksgiving, the we open at 10pm Thursday so you don't have to wait for black-Friday! Oh man, I'm sick of it and I haven't even hit Thursday!  Well I don't know if I'm heading out or not...are you?  I'll check out the circulars and let you know!
We had a mellow day today, slept in, made pancakes were relaxing when the phone rang and oops, I'm supposed to be at Ashley Court! Charlotte and I hopped out of pj's into jeans, shot to church for the Eucharist, then over to AC. Of course we were both so happy to be there, everyone was happy to see us, especially Charlotte. Charlotte was super chatty today, which was neat. The kids did alot of beads and they enjoyed that.  Did a bit of "work" with my Portland friends, and then Jer took us out to Zukey Lake for a pre-race meal.  We also swung through the old 'hood to drop off the pumpkin bread I had made.  Lindsay and Russ are in town, and we hope to get a visit in on Saturday. Then, oh happy day! (thanks Saint Anthony) I found my missing Kohls Cash-whhooott!  Ran out at 7pm, Jer came along and got some new business clothes and I got boots for Molly and shoes for me.  So glad I got to spend it, the thought of losing it was killing me!
So early to bed, we're up at 5:15 to gobble on down to Detroit to start our Turkey Trot!

Tuesday Time with my friends!

Yay! The kids are old enough to stay alone, and so off to the movies I go with Shawne, Karen and Inez! We saw Morning Glory, premise..girl who wants to be working on the today show is stuck on Good Morning New Jersey! And in keeping with the Jersey jokes, that is a fate worse than death. Luckily this is the movies, so Manhattan can't be far away. Won't spoil it, but it was very cute.  Jack and Leah spent the day over here, keeping my kids happy. Charlotte Jack and Alex had teen advisory board and Mol had chorale.  I made a killer pot of cheeseburger soup and toasted up some sweet potato bread to go with, yum!  I think my thought for today is no matter how messy your house is, if you have a chance to be with friends, GO! The mess will wait for you...mine did!

Monday 11/22 Kids rule the roost!

Vacation has begun and we've got all kids all the time, just how I like it! Ryan spent the night and they woke up and started playing in Danny's room. Had to drag them down for breakfast at 10am! I am so glad that Danny has such a good friend. Ryan is a great kid and we like his folks, that just makes it so much  easier, you know what I mean? Anyway, Shawne then dropped off Sophie and Leah and took Charlotte with her, Alex and Jack to see Harry Potter (Charlotte on time 2, in her glory!).  Leah and Molly played Betty's and Build-a-Bear, while Danny,Sophie and Ryan played electronic Life and keepaway,pingpong, and throwing things at each other! All I know is that there is alot of laughter in the house and that is a sound I can never get enough of.  In between raindrops they all jumped on the trampoline, playing the favourite game "tag and the it has to keep his eyes closed" When Charlotte was dropped off, Leah left but Jack stayed and after dinner I took them to the library for a jewelery making class with  Roseanne.  She runs the best programs, and the kids made bracelets that were gorgeous(Danny made one for me!)  Came home with thoughts of basement cleaning, but instead went up to bed with my book. I needed to finish it it was so good!  Susan had recommended it,  The River Wife by Jonis Agee(who used to be a Prof at U of M!) So, so much for my cleaning and my blogging! Getting busy on both this am.!

Sunday 11/21 The vacation begins....!

We went to mass last night so we got to sleep in! Yay!  Jer dug out some Taylor ham so we could have a Jersey breakfast and the kids were thrilled.  Jerry took the little darlings down to their first U of M BBall game of the year. The team they were playing was called Gardiner-something University, obviously an easy win for the U. That didn't matter to my kids though, a wins a win in their book, and they were thrilled.  Jer said there were only about 3,000 people there, so when the kids went over to the tunnel and hung their arms down, :we got a high five from every player Mom!!!"  In the big crowded games, you can't even get near the rail!  Weather is gorgeous again, certainly not like any November I've ever seen out here, we'll take it!
Tonight we did Loaves and Fishes, the traveling free dinner, which was at our church this week.  We donate food(I was on for milk, cottage cheese,cheesy spuds and a dessert),set up, greet the guests, serve, visit,  and clean-up.  It is a family volunteer opportunity, which is great.  Really makes us feel good, and hopefully the kids see that serving others is part of our obligation both as Catholics and people who are fortunate enough not to need a free meal.  God Bless all the folks who came to our meal and all the workers and their families too.

We're not turning them on yet, I swear!

How could we pass up the 60 degree weather? I know Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, but the stores have had Christmas up since 10/15!  So now our lights are up..I KNOW! 
 But they are not lit, and will stay not lit until after Thursday!  Awesome snowflakes over the door, big light up globes in the trees, outline of a Christmas tree on the garage wall, and of course the candy canes marching up the driveway. AWESOME!
Danny was so excited to help, he was on the ladder, in the tree, all over!
He enjoyed his party last night, they watched GI JOE,The Movie until 12:30 (and I found out the girls were up til 1 at their sleepover!) then slept til 9am. After waffles and trampoline (the breakfast of champions)  Sott and Danny played with Danny's Hex Bug Battle Habitat that Scott had given him. They are pretty cool little critters and they had alot of fun. We went to 5pm mass after the girls helped out with bowling. A pal of Molly's from back in the day at BHS Choir was the cantor and he was fantastic! The Feast of Christ the King, Amen 
Told the kids at dinner that when the doorbell rang at 8pm, to answer it, cause it would be Vern Yip from HGTV coming to tell me that I won the Urban Oasis apartment in NYC.  Molly said "is Vern Yip a real name?"  then "is he really coming here?"  I wish! Sadly the winner was a 21year old guy from Florida who entered once! Me and the other 15,654,312 people who were expecting Vern tonight were disappointed!

Charlotte's Senior CC Season comes to a close

Charlotte had a great senior season, receiving her
1000 mile award, scholar athlete award, and finishing
up as a Captain who everyone enjoyed running
with. I am very proud of her, and I know she has
a lot of good running yet to come, starting with a 10K
Turkey Trot this Thursday.
Super Star Char!

at Brighton District Library- Can you shake your fingers and do the twist?!

Spent my day at BDL, doing my storytime and other tasks.  We were quite busy, so there wasn't a dull moment. We are all still adjusting to Sandy's absense. I worked with Anne the teen librarian and that was great.  Danny is celebrating his birthday today with his friends...Decided to hop on the date since the girls were off to their Harry Potter movie/sleepover, and Danny has at times had his party in March!  Jack and Collin couldn't make it, but Ryan,Scott and Joey came for dinner, went to BBall, came back for brownies and ice cream and are now watching a movie. Danny seems to be having fun!
The Harry Potter movie took in 24 million in MIDNIGHT SHOW MONEY!  Holy gringots!  I'm sure I'll go with Charlotte next week. Have a great weekend...what are your plans? comments please!

11/18 Thursday- no snappy title!

Only November and already I've lost my ability to title the blog posts?  Oh NO! I will try to work on the creativity.  Karen and I took a brisk several mile walk after I dropped Danny off this am. What a great chance to catch up with my dear friend. I then spent most of the day baking, and getting ready for Charlotte's cross country awards ceremony, packing the girls up for their sleepover and also getting ready for Danny's party.  The CC thing started at 6:45 and ended at 10"30! UGH! Jer and Danny left at 8:30 and I left at 9:15. Picked up the girls later! Just couldn't listen to all the people talking about the "Fantastic Gary Meehan" who is retiring after 33 years. I wish him well, but I'm done!  Jer had a productive couple of days in Florida and got back in time for BBall practice.  Moving forward away from BHS, every day in that direction is great!

Wednesday 11/17 Teacher Conferences

Danny and Charlotte are off from school today-teacher conf.  I headed to the high school for my LAST TIME and I am thrilled.  Charlotte's teachers all had nice things to say, several of them have had her before, so they commented on how comfortable she is with them.  That makes a big difference with Charlotte's autism.  I was very happy to bring the good report home to Charlotte, who seemed tickled.  Jack came over and he and Danny had fun all day long, and Charlotte went down to Shawne's to play with Leah. I opened up the pumpkin bread factory and made loaves upon loaves...the kitchen smelled awesome!

Sitting by the fire...

The rain started about 5pm, but the boys(Danny and Scotty) got an hour and a half of trampolining in and the girls both went running. Now the rain is pounding down and I am cozy by my fire.  I know this will stir up some controversy, but I don't miss my real fireplace one bit!No bringing in the wet and dirty logs, and trying to get the newspaper to catch, and then when its finally roaring, I'm ready to go to bed! So I flick it on, snuggle by it, flick it off and go to bed..NO Guilt! Enjoying a fantastic episode of The Good Wife-give it a watch if you don't already, Juliana Margolis is really great.  The kids have no school tomorrow. teacher conferences. So we'll start up the pumpkin bread factory and do our party planning for Friday.
Stay dry!

Choose Joy

Went to Sandy's funeral this morning. It was a celebration of her life, with lots of great stories told by her family,friends and co-workers. I had a chance to speak briefly, and the pastor also read an email I sent to Sandy's sister. This was a surprise to me. At first I was a little embarrassed, but then I realized that it was to bring comfort to her family and if it did then it's all good. Her pastor spoke alot about how Sandy was brave and fearless in her love of the Lord and giving of her time and talents. A good reminder to me. Came home and got some tension out by cleaning all the wood floors in the house with the steam mop. Also worked in the garage, and almost got 2 cars in! I was just a little nervous without an outside guider, so maybe when Jer gets home from Florida I can do it.  The purging continues to go well.   Worked at the library from 5-9, busy in spurts, then slow! Spent some time with Margaret talking about Sandy and that felt good.
Got home in time to say prayers with Danny, so my day ended on a great note-I am blessed.

Sunday- is this your end of the week or your start??

Today's question? Is Sunday the end of the week for you or the beginning of the week?  For me it is the end of the week.  I like to reflect in church on the past week, and see where I need to adjust my course. I like to close things out and think and plan for Monday as my blast-off for another fantastic week(a girl can dream can't she?!)  Jer and I got up early and tiptoed out to 8'oclock mass, just the two of us.  Several people asked us where the kids were(like we might have them tied up somewhere) but it was very nice to be alone.  Father Karl said mass and he talked about perseverance as a christian. About not giving up or saying I do things pretty good most of the time, so that's good enough, but about striving to be the best,fullest follower of JESUS we can be each day.  We had been talking about Danny and his problem with being mad if he isn't great at something instantly, and wanting to give up. This is a trait that served his brother very poorly, and we are trying to head it off in Danny. Anyway this gave us alot to think about re:D, but also re:ourselves..and my moving forward this week is focusing on optimism,joy and perseverance.  Still thinking about the tattoo!
Went to Kohls to do some Christmas shopping with Karen's 30% (thanks girlfriend!) and then to Sandy's wake. Not much to say about that, just sadness.
Served an awesome Turkey Soup, it's a Thanksgiving recipe which involves a turkey carcass, can of cranberry sauce, gravy, veggies,etc.  Threw in homestyle egg noodles, and served sweet potato bread. Yum!
Jerry,Molly Danny and I played the dice game Greed..have you tried it? If not it's a great stocking stuffer, I'm happy because I won!
The girls went to their youth groups, Charlotte-Catholic, Molly-Methodist! and Danny and I sat by the fire and read(and blogged) I have started a kids book called My one hundred adventures  by Polly Horvath, one of my favourite authors. She wrote Everything on a Waffle and I highly recommend them both.
Happy end of the week(or beginning!)

Thought I'd get more done....Saturday 11/13

The story of Saturdays sometimes, see if you agree...you're so happy to see that you have no plans for Saturday. You say to yourself, "wow, I'm gonna get a ton accomplished!"  Then you do the dishes, throw in a load of laundry and its noon..how can this be? you wonder. Head off to Wal-mart for shopping and
hi-jinks with Danny and that's great and I buy a ton, but then its 3pm when you get home! Gotta eat and have some coffee, and put away all the stuff we bought....then its time to go get the girls. Danny stays home with Jack(he's legal!) and I drive to Fowlerville to Saint Agnes where the girls have done a Holy Spirit retreat and its 4:15.  Mol informs me she is going to church at 5, so drive back into Brighton and over to church and drop off the girls(Charlotte decides to go to,to pray for the buckeyes who are down at the half to
Penn state!) then back home...it's 5:10.  Throw together the dinner, get Jack and Danny, drive back into town, drop off Jack and pick up the girls at church and drive back home..it's 6:30.  Hustle through dinner and head downstairs for our planned movie night. Charlotte and I are excited to show Danny and Molly the first Harry Potter movie..Danny finished the book on Thursday.  Try to stay awake through most of it, and I love watching Danny watch it, he is really enjoying the series...he is on page 76 of book three already!
Jer arrives safely back from Ohio, gone 12 hours, 6 of which were spent driving! what a guy, he wants to be home to go to church on Sunday.
So to sum up, hardly got anything on my list done, but had alot of fun anyway! you know what I mean?!
ps. Buckeyes come back in the second half and beat Penn State-oh the power of prayer!

Friday 11/12 Mother Goose is loose!

Mother Goose is on the loose again, kickin it with 75 Brighton Mom's and kiddies...we read Where's Spot?
and Hide and Seek Pets story, and one called "who will play with me?" . Favourite dance tune is the Greg and Steve compilation of the Chicken Dane, Itsy-Bitsy Spider, and Head-Shoulders-Knees and Toes.  "Shake it likes it's Friday" I shout!  We had a family donate a huge jug of animal crackers so the snacks go on, in spite of our budget crisis.  Big Fun!
Tough being there and thinking about Sandy, last week we were missing her, but still prayerfully optimistic for her recovery.  Now its the grieving and moving on part.  Roseanne made a beautiful collage of photos of Sandy in action at the library and hung it up in the department. She also hung the apron Sandy wore for storytime in the activity room, which looks just right. Thanks Roseanne! The smiles help the grief.
Jerry took all the kiddies to BBall and Leo's while Shawne and I spent a couple of blissful hours at our favourite boutique(you know what I'm talking about!).  Sweaters were 50% off and blue tags 8 for $5!  Superb! Hope I continue to be a good example to the kids about the value of the dollar, the fun of  treasure hunting, and how its good for the earth to buy used!

The cost of home ownership! Thursday 11/11

Yikes!  That piece of siding that blew off the house is sure gonna cost us!  Spent a good portion of the day with siding and window folks, getting estimates on the repair and on the replacement cost for the front windows in the house.  Like most home maintenance, you keep thinking...for that kinda money I could put granite counter tops in the bathroom or go on  a trip..Susan you know what I'm talking about, with your "gorgeous" new roof!  It just isn't a fun way to spend many thousands of dollars!  The siding is a must though, and I'll pick in the next few days.  Also got some mundane cleaning out of the way, sheets changed,bathrooms cleaned,etc. whhoooohoo!
I got some sad news today at noon, my friend and co-worker Sandy had died.  She was in the hospital after an acute sudden attack of pancreatitis, and after 10 days, she spiked a fever and they needed to do exploratory surgery to find out why and found that her gut was basically dead.
I worked with her 2 Fridays ago, she was 57.  She was also Charlotte's favourite of my work friends, and she was devastated when I told her the news.  We had been praying for her together.  Sandy was a devout christian and I know that Jesus and his angels carried her up to heaven. 
Just makes you want to not put off anything that you are thinking about,
from saying "I Love You" to going on an African safari.

The Joy of Ashley Court Wednesday 11/10

Today the pleasure of service moved my heart forward.  Ashley Court, where I am on a team of people who do a communion service each week, is an Alzheimer's facility here in Brighton.  Each Wednesday a gal from our parish does two services, one for buildings 1 and 2 and another for buildings 3 and 4.  The buildings house residents with the progressive disease, moving from 1-4.  Many of the folks have been there for the whole 4 years I've been going there, but many have died, or are new residents coming in.  The folks who are aware are so happy and grateful to see me whenever I come.  They have no expectations or demands, just pure joy at seeing me!  Wow! It is overwhelming that so little from me can mean so much to them.  It puts lots of other things in life in perspective.  The neatest thing is watching the non-verbal residents sing along with a familiar hymn, like Amazing Grace, or mouth the words to the Our Father.  The words they have known for so long rise up from the depths of their memories, even when they can't remember their names.  I just see GOD in this, as he comforts them with his words and his peace. 

Blogging about Tuesday on Tuesday!

Blogging about Tuesday on Tuesday, life is back to normal! I'm not sure how working in the cafeteria at St. Pats is a forward movement, that's how I spent Tuesday! Charlotte does a fantastic job washing trays and other cleaning jobs every Tuesday. She always has a smile, even in the faces of taco meat and gooey cheese!  I also had a chance to do a little Christmas shopping, I'm hoping to lessen the big bills in December.  The weather was the other big story today, 62 degrees, and basketball all afternoon! We are supposed to have this nice mild weather all week.
My book club met tonight, we discussed The Beach Trip which we all enjoyed.  Rhonda is choosing the next book, and we're going to reconvene in January after the bustle of Christmas is over.
Watched my 2 TV shows, NCIS Los Angeles and The Good Wife, both were great, and I'm off to bed to read now, What are you reading? Let me know! Kerry

namaste- starting this week of peacefully

7:45 am Vinyasa Yoga class with Leeann- only 5 people in the class, so lots of room for the yoga dropout to ease back in.  Leeann makes me feel so welcome, and she really helps everyone to relax and work to their ability.  I feel great, GO ME!  Got home to find the family ready to go for a run..allrighty! Off to the metro park for a 5K run and agility training.  We all want to get in shape for the Festival 5K in a couple of weeks.  It is sunny and 60 today, crazy great weather for Nov. in Michigan.  Jer took the day off to spend with the kids, who have off for....?? and we had cronhole and ladder ball on the lawn, garage cleaning, and the annual post-Halloween pumpkin bowling down the side yard.  Whooooahhhhh!  Working to maintain the harmony in the house, trying not to fall into the "yell at me" traps Charlotte sets, or get stressed about anything.  so far so good!  Went to my knitting group,took Molly to work on her beads, we had a nice time.  Danny started BBall practice tonight with his new St. Pat's 4th grade team.  He was so tired, felt kinda bad, because we didn't know he had practice til 5pm, and we sure had alot of physical training.  But wasn't doesn't kill you...etc.

Fall back-that's what I'm talkin' about! Sunday 11/7

Oh, it was great to sleep in and still get up early!  Danny,Charlotte and I went to 9:30 mass, said by Father Karl.  Our parish is focusing on the welcoming and inviting aspects of reaching out.  This week Father Karl urged us to invite someone to something we are already doing. It can be a game, a walk, to our house, to mass, anything.  And he emphasized that the asking is the act, it doesn't matter if they say Yes or not.  It is nice to be asked, and it may cause someone else to ask, or be more open to being asked.  I like this assignment, since I love to do things with people.  I invited Father Mark to come over for dinner in a couple of weeks, now that is really stepping outside my comfort zone.  Imagine me having having a priest for dinner!  I'll keep you posted.

Everybody's working on the weekend! Saturday 11/6

Brighton District Library was the weekend destination, and I spent Sat and Sun "toiling away".  Not really! It was good to have a few hours that I wasn't doing a story time to do some planning and help out with some dept. projects.  Jerry and I had an at home movie night and watched Date Night with Steve Carroll and Tina Fey.  I thought it would just be a laugh, but it was  actually very poignant.  It must have been written by someone who has been married at least 15 years, and who loves being married but knows how easy it is fall into a rut.  I found alot of parallels and alot of food for thought.  Must add doing new things in the marriage to my goals for the year(or at least start saying yes to dinner invites!) 

"Back to life, back to reality" Friday 11/5

When I got up this morning at 6:15 to see Charlotte before she left for school, it was so odd. It felt so normal, and it felt like I had never been away. Not in a bad way, but just that all was the same, make the lunches, find the library books, quiz for the spelling test, and it didn't seem possible that I had experienced what I had.  The kids are great, and survived Jerry's business focused week and my being away.  Big Thanks to Karen,Rhonda,Shawne and Kim for the varying degrees of help..and always for the huge degree of friendship! That is an area that I already know I am blessed in!  Off to work from 9-5:30, "sold out" my Mother Goose Cafe by 10:15, and definitely had more fun than last week!  Perhaps it was not being hampered by the "see-through" costume that made it so great!  I enjoyed spending the evening putzing around the house, unpacking the 85 lb. Fed Ex box, doing laundry, sweeping. Hadn't been home for the evening in about 10 days and it was great. 

Take-away from the week is I need to broaden my horizons! There is a wide world out there, filled with interesting people, and I need to meet more of them.  Good thing I'm all over it already with my 49 and forward theme.  Any ideas on how to keep it going are gratefully accepted!

Molly takes my picture at the beach Wed. morning!















Contemporary Kerry,Molly and young Kerry













Molly and I cooling off before her pool shots

last day photos

the team post shoot


Molly on the elliptical



Molly in the pool

Last day in LA Thursday 11/4

Molly and I got up at 6:30, so we could do another new thing, jog along the Pacific!  We headed down from the hotel, and did 5 miles! GO US!  Back at the hotel, lemon water in the lobby, then a dip in the pool (why not?!) and showers, packing and goodbye room, lobby to meet the gang at 8:30.  We head down south in Santa Monica to Lime, a sound studio that has amazing coffee, its own Chef making breakfast to order and a great recording studio. I am doing voice over, something else new!!  Apparently according to the group, all my reading aloud all these years has payed off and I do a good job. Whew! You definitely feel out there being in a booth with headphones on, and everyone else out in the main room talking after each take, and you can't hear what they are saying...it was really another interesting learning experience. The crew, led by Jesse ends up in a couple of more heated UNO games with Molly, Jesse loses the first 2 and is freaking out! It is so funny. To make him feel better, I challenge him to a game of ping pong and let him win,...OKay, not really! I try to beat him and he kicks my dupa!  He is from Minnesota, alot of long winters playing ping pong I guess! After the session was through, i had breakfast with Molly, and we all talked, then Jen,Jesse,Tatum and Ken headed to the airport.  They left Molly and I the second car.  It was weird to say goodbye to them, we have spent SO much time together these past 4 days, its just an odd feeling, that you just met but you are so close at the same time.  Bye guys, safe trip back to Portland. Ken, enjoy Willa's first birthday and your trip to the coast!
Molly finally drags me away from the coffee, good magazines, and product filled bathroom at Lime and we head to Venice Beach.  Not a ton of bodybuilders, but a few...and a man balancing on a 3 foot high pole in a thong waving 5 snakes all around his body(no pictures allowed!), homeless guy playing concert quality piano tied to his bike parked in front of a restaurant, medical marijuana shops(the doctor is in ladies..enjoy your right to be pain free!)and lots of tattoos. But its 95 degrees at this point, so we get in the air0conditioned car for a little driving tour of marina del ray and surrounding area before heading south to the airport.  So along the way we get a nice text from Jen saying our ears must have been burning because they talked about us all the way to the airport!  That sure made me feel good!
Airport and plane ride typical and we arrive in Brighton in the black van that the driver said had been used in a Bon Jovi video. I think he wanted me to be impressed/excited, not asleep like I was!!
So ends the LA ADVENTURE...what a phenomenal time!  We are blessed.

Wednesday 11/3 The House, "take one!"

Molly and I were due in the lobby at 8:30, so we decided to take a walk on the beach!  First of course we took showers, and grabbed coffee  (and a smoking hot bagel that had just been delivered for Molly!) We had to go down a steep hill and series of staircases and over-the-road walkways and then we were on the beach! The sun was coming up and we walked along the sand. It was so beautiful and inspiring.  As we turned to leave  we saw something out of the corner of our eye, it was two dolphins! They were close to the shore and we got a photo! As we headed towards the sidewalk, my phone rang...it was Bob the AD, saying that Matt was up at the hotel and they needed us to leave early for the shoot! Oh boy! The sprint up the side of the cliff begins, with Molly kicking off her flops and just charging, and we arrived in short order! Matt has gotten us lattes and Molly rode shotgun as we drove out to the rented house for the shoot.  Matt played us some great bluegrass music.  We stopped at a church a couple of blocks away, where everyone had to leave their cars, and of course the breakfast catering was set up. Huevos Rancheros, omlettes,oatmeal with toppings, a juicer, muffins, krispykremes,fruit,bagels, ETC!!! The food really is unreal!
We vanned up to the house, it was beautiful, ranch style with big open floor plan and a gorgeous pool in the backyard,surrounded by Dr. Seuss trees.
Molly got into make-up and wardrobe, and we got a peek at baby Molly and young Kerry.  I said I guess that left me with the roll of old Kerry, but Jerry Rice of P&G said I could be Contemporary Kerry! Doesn't that sound like an action figure?! So I guess it's cool to be me!  Molly and I did a bunch of shots in the kitchen and it was really fun.  They said to act like Molly was helping me cook, and I said that really was acting!! It was fun though, I just talked and chopped veggies while they shot film. It goes so quick.  Then Molly changed, did more shots, then we broke for lunch. Lunch was set up across the street on a lawn that someone rents out! The catering truck was there with a full salad bar, shrimp salad, Greek salad,ceaser salad, pasta salad, breads, entrees of rack of lamb, pecan encrusted salmon, chicken Marsala,and 2 others. dessert of hot brownies with icecream and toppings cookies, and of course espressos,lattes etc. over on the truck.  Mind you the snack table is always open,with pringles,candy,power bars,yogurt,fruit,cookies,brownie bites, almond roca, jelly beans, etc.! Are you hungry yet? I wish I liked to eat more, but I certainly have been trying new things ala my blog goal.  The afternoon saw Molly doing swimming shots and shots on the elliptical against a black background which looked awesome.  The cinematographer was filming in HD, super 8,slow-mo,fast-mo, and Molly had to start,stop,look up, smile,don't smile,wait,go,fast,slow, and in between wardrobe adjusted things and Claudia sprayed her with fake sweat! At the pool, they had a towel wrangler to hand Molly a towel, and 2 splashers to put their feet in off camera to agitate the water just so...it is really amazing,complicated and fascinating!
When she finished on the elliptical the shoot was a wrap and everyone started to applaud her, and Malcolm and Dion.  They all started breaking things down right away and moving out.  Molly and I were presented with a beautiful picture of the 2 of us, from Janet and the P&G family.  Yes, I started to cry,you knew that!  We all took some more photos, then headed into Malibu Canyon for a fabulous wrap dinner at the Saddlebrook Ranch, a log cabin building complete with stuffed heads, guns,cool chotkes all over the place.
The dinner guests were Janet ,Jerry,Clients,Malcolm=director,Jen,Tatum,Jesse,and Ken -Agency, John- producer,Dave from SO and Molly and I.  Entrees included bison,elk,gazelle,antelope,and other game animals.  I had Filet Mignon for Dad, and Molly had salmon.  Since I don't drink, I got to drive everyone home on the Pacific Coast Highway, all twisty through the mountains-awesome!
We are back at the Oceana early, but whipped, so we hop in our cloud like beds and go to sleep. Job well done Molly!

Sunrise and Sunset in Santa Clarita Tuesday 11/2

My goodness, if I didn't know better, I'd say Molly was an actor!  She did a fantastic job, turning, stopping, changing, running, being hugged, being rained on... all with a smile. In fact in the last scene, shooting at 6:15pm (we were picked up at 5am and on the set by 6am) they had to tell Molly not to smile!  We have met so many people my head is spinning, but standouts include, Janet and Jim and Jerry from P&G, Dave from National SO, Coach Becky from SOSC and all her terrific athletes and parents, Malcolm, the director, with a baby son Woody, has won awards for his work, and the cinematographer did Chicago among other things. The food on the set lived up to its reputation, with hot and cold things all day, and mid snack people walking through the crowds with meatball sub. bites and chili corn quesdedillas. Also coolers of drinks, cookies,candy,nuts,chips,etc. you name it at each shooting spot.
After being picked up at the Oceana at 5am, we drove to Santa Clarita, and were there by 6. They told Molly to get some breakfast, which was all set up on a huge buffet table...before she could take a bite, she needed to go to wardrobe. After getting in her outfit and make-up they said she could go finish eating(she never started) then literally as she was opening her mouth to bite, they said"okay, we're set up, the light is good, lets go!  At around 3 hours I could tell "the Talent" was flagging, so I did stop the thing long enough for her to get a bite.  We recreated some special Olympics scenes,including races, medal ceremony and rain training!  Lunch was another huge meal with pork chops,ziti, chicken and salmon,plus every side known to man and a giant salad bar. of course the talent is so busy she can't eat!
the filming is fascinating, and we are learning alot and meeting so many cool people. Looking forward to today-me for the adventure, Molly for her chance to beat the ad guys in another game of UNO!

Monday on the Coast..(does this sound pretentious!)

Well to kick off another new experience this year, Molly and I took off for LA this morning! A car service picked us up and whisked us to the airport, where we boarded a Delta flight to California. Our contact from the ad agency picked us up, and we went to a beautiful little restaurant for lunch. Jennifer and her team from Weiden/Kennedy had all flown in from Oregon, where they have been saturated in Hincka's for 2 weeks. They talked about how much they liked us and Molly's story, and it was so weird, cause they know us, but we don't know them. Anyway they are all really nice and Mol loves them, so that's awesome. We headed to Anonymous content after lunch for the fittings for tomorrow and Thursday. I had a chance to meet the girl who is playing the part of  "the young Kerry"  (of course that leaves me with the role of "the old Kerry"!) apparently this is a commercial we are doing!!!! So yep, we're in LA while Molly films a commercial! When I called Susan and told her we were both giggling at the words--so surreal! So Molly got dressed and undressed for about 3 hours, then we came back to the Hotel Oceana, Santa Monica. It is a beautiful, quaint boutique Hotel, with a courtyard pool and island-y decor. Molly and I hopped right in for a swim, then got changed and took a long walk down the Pacific roadway, looking at the sunset and pinching ourselves. We went to the Santa Monica Pier, and rode the Ferris Wheel and had Churros. Mol said they were better than Costco's!  Then we walked back to the Hotel(a MUCH LONGER WALK) and grabbed a couple of slices on the way from Joe's New York Pizza. We brought them back so Molly could catch some Monday Night Football.  There was a knock at the door and a gift basket was delivered from Anonymous saying they are looking forward to a great shoot tomorrow.!
 OH MY GOODNESS-WE'RE IN LA AND MOLLY IS SHOOTING A COMMERCIAL TOMORROW!