Molly is home and happy..and exhausted!

Well, she's back! Plane delayed out of Chicago, so our plans to all go to the airport are foiled. Jer gets her, but we all arrive home at the same time and are able to eat together!  She is tired and happy! All together the experience was great, a couple of small glitches.  Her roommate apparently spent alot of time on the phone...what a pain. But I'll tell you what, she did great with being responsible for all her things. She returned home with everything!  Of course my softener system decided to have a problem tonight and cough up rust all over her new WHITE Team shirt! That's what I get for doing laundry so efficiently, we will be calling the coach to try to get a new one!
I had time today for banking, oil change, and a play date with Leah, sometimes knowing I'm going out of town seems to motivate me to get more done!
Off to NJ in the morning, I can't wait to see Susan and the kids, and hope to hook up with Donnie and Catherine too, maybe even sneak into the city or out to Ellis Island.
I will post Molly's photos she took tomorrow. should be interesting!

wednesday 3/30/11

Shopping last minute for costume pieces for the parade this afternoon, I hope they pass "inspection"! Charlotte needs a girdle for her dress, stockings and shoes. Luckily, I score some $5.00 shoes at Meijer and Mrs. Thomas approves them! Everyone looks great in their outfits.  Jer gets home but speeds out to a client dinner, so I am on the hook for dinner, lacrosse, etc.  But that's okay! Packing for NJ and getting pretty organized. I am a bit worried because I didn't spot Molly in the photos they posted, but Jer talked me off the ledge!  I can't wait til she comes home, I hope she had fun!

Training Camp shots of Molly

not sure what's going on, but it looks like fun!

The Track and Field Team is #1!

gonna have to ask Molly what they are saying...



Go Molly!




Molly finds a football player!



Terrific Tuesday Again!?!

When you start to type a title, it brings up your history and  my lack of creativity is sadly apparent as Terrific Tuesday popped right up-gotta work on my blog titles!

Things that were terrific today...

1. On time dropping off Danny
2. Buying Leah a chocolate donut at Dunkin Donuts and having a coffee with Shawne before work
3. Watching Roseanne bust a move in Read To The Beat, shake it sister!
4. Sunshine all day
5. Danny's costume for the play-he is so cute!
6. hummus
7. phone call with Rhonda, we laughed!!!!
8. Jack coming over to jump on the trampoline with Danny-hopefully the first of many days!
9. great pictures of Molly at Training Camp, smiling in every picture! Share the joy My Girl!

I did it!

Getting ready to start

Now don't move or pass out!

Bagzye and I, he was so nice and friendly!

and that's all there was to it! not painful at all!

Well, almost 6 months into my 49th year, I went for it and got my first tattoo! I had been planning this for a year or so, and just decided that this was the week. I stopped in at American Graffiti Tattoo in Brighton and the guy was such ad, jerk. He looked at me like I had wandered into the wrong place. "What, you don't get many old Mom's in little sweaters popping in for tattoos on a Monday?"  Anyway, he was a pompous,unfriendly jerk, and I said "uh, Thanks" and left. So then I went to Sally's to buy ByeByeBirdie costume pieces, and when I finished, my heart was still pulling me to the tattoo. So I googled parlours in the area and found one just up the road, Eternal Tattoos.  From the moment I walked in I felt great! The gal was super nice, and said usually walk ins don't work, but they had a cancellation, so I was in luck. uh-huh... The artist was 48, married to a gal who will be 50 in sept, uh-huh..., He was very friendly and informative, and made me feel right at home. It just didn't hurt at all, and I wasn't anxious at all. It was exhilarating. Within an hour I was on my way to Meijer to pick up a tube of aquaphor! I am feeling great! So excited and proud of myself! YAY Me!

The rest of the day was a bunch of driving and shuffling, and cleaning and shopping. My other YAY! was SO swimming started tonight. It was great to see Coach Kathy and the team, only bad thing is the time, 7:45.pm-8:45pm, so home at 9:30, but I love to coach these guys, so I'll deal.

The Westin Detroit Nat'l Forest!

 Molly and teammates

Here are David, Molly and Sabra ready to catch the shuttle to their plane.
It is 4:45am!
This mural is inexplicably in the lobby of the airport hotel??!!

Here we are and there she goes!

Wow, off went Molly to San Diego! How strange is that? I know that is what we want, and I am not worried at all(that's Susan's job!) but it is strange to think of the new people she'll meet that we won't know, and all the experiences she'll have.  Well good for you my darling girl, knock 'em off their feet out there! The rest of the fam had omelette's Jerry cooked when he got home from the hotel, he worked out before he checked out in the gorgeous gym, and then he took a well deserved nap.  We went to 11:30 mass, with Father Mark and Deacon MacDonald. The homily compared how when Annie Sullivan was finally able to break through to Helen Keller about what water meant, what a life changing revelation it was. And that same revelation is possible for us when we understand that GOD gave us JESUS and the living water so we will never be thirsty. Awesome!
Worked at the library til 5pm, Jer and the kids worked out, then took a road trip to that Lucky Strikes arcade they like to go to. Supposed to come home at 6:30 but Jer called to say all the restaurants were cooking steaks when they left the arcade and the smell was too much for them, they had to stop to eat! Hilarious! Message from Molly saying she arrived safely. She sounded very happy!
 So peace for me, and blogging time on the sun porch, watching the birds swoop in and out to the feeders, and banging occasionally on the window to keep the squirrels away. Life is good.

Saturday 3/26/11

Poor Charlotte! I dropped her off at the BCPA at 7:50am and picked her up at 10:15pm! Can you believe it? A 14 hour rehersal, this play is going to be fabulous!  Danny went down at 6pm to watch for a bit, he said it was looking great. Danny actually got to sleep in, and didn't show himself til about 10:20 when I had started frying peppers and onions to put in the crockpot for the corn chowder I was making. I smelled him out!  We finished Twenty and Ten, the great book we were reading about some French kids at a school who hide some Jewish kids in a cave to keep them from the Nazi's. I loved this book when I was his age, and he really liked it too. One of my greatest pleasures is sharing books with him.  He went to lacrosse practice, layered up against the 30 degree temp, and had a great time. Then we stopped at Target for a slushy and a camera for Molly. Disposables now cost $10.00 and a digital cost $19 on clearance. So we'll see how she does with it! Hopefully some pics will go here soon! Jerry and Molly ran in about 6pm, scarfed down some chowder, changed and headed for the airport for their 8pm meeting at the Westin  airport hotel. Then they hit the "dream beds" and got up at 4:15am! After photos and hugs Molly and the group(4 others, 2 coaches,2 athletes plus Mol)headed off on the shuttle. oops, this is really a Sunday post!!!

Friday 3/25/11 Mother Goose on the Road!

Today the library does an in service at Totspot, the local preschool. We are part of a day that will yield the teachers and staff 6 continuing education credits. We have spent alot of time this week getting ready, and it is a bit anti-climactic. There was alot of hauling of materials, and the people seemed to enjoy what we had to say, but for the amount of time spent? not worth it. But I am only a peon, and just do what I am told! I ended up with only 4 people in my group, the toddler staff, who all sat down in a row, behind a table, as far away from me as they could get! Trying to get them up and dancing to songs was weird and awkward. The preschool group had about 20 people, who all hopped up and joined in(as I observed when my little group and I went back to join the big group at the end). I think it feels less strange when there are more adults. Well hopefully I inspired them, or at least told them where to get free music!!  Noticed that Carla has me scheduled for next Friday, and that is when spring break starts. I am sure she will NOT be happy when I tell her I can't work.  I got home around 12:30 and set to work on Molly's suitcase for San Diego (now that she is off at the bball tourney), picked up Danny and Brianna at school at 1:45 for their rehearsal, went home and finished up, scrubbed the living snot out of the girls shower, talked to Mom, then went back to pick up the kids. I spontaneously decided that Costco for a pizza ready in 10minutes was the answer to my hungry kids, and so it was. Also ran into the costume mom for the play and got my marching orders on that.  Jerry and Molly called to report a heartbreaking loss by 3 points for the Pink Panthers, so now they wait til 2pm tomorrow to play again.

Blog Stats!

Hilarious! You can check your stats to see how many readers you have (I found this while attempting to change the time after realizing it was set to pacific time!) and on my graph it is mostly flat, with a couple of spikes going across left to right...then I check on the left vertical side of the graph, the spikes are when the viewing went from 2 to almost 4! Now that's what I call traffic! Thank heavens I'm doing this more for myself, otherwise I would be super depressed!
So thanks Donnie, my loyal reader, I love you!

killer work day!

BDL is a frenzy prepping for this inservice we give tomorrow. I feel like I used to at college, when you have a big exam and you get to the point where you just say "well, no matter what, this time tomorrow it'll be over!" Got in at 9am, left at 5:15pm, and we meet for the presentation at 8:45am tomorrow! I will have about 10 minutes for my part, after all this ahgida!
and BYU goes down....oh man!

Wednesday Play Pizza Party (supposedly!)

Loser Mom strikes again! I fail to know(thought how are you supposed to if this is your first musical) that the rehersal ends at 5pm, and kids are supposed to come back at 6:30 for pizza. So I am an hour late to pick up the kids,(6pm instead of 5pm)  yell at them for not being problem solvers, the yell stemming from my guilt about not reading the schedule correctly. Drag them home, yell some more, make Danny do some homework, then take them back at 6:30 expecting them to get pizza. Well apparantly it is bring your own pizza, and we haven't brought any! So my kids have no dinner and we stand around awkwardly til 7pm, the kids eating a lowfat granola bar I find in my purse, then we have the speech from the director, go into the auditorium to see 4 numbers, then head home. I fix Danny, who hasn't complained a bit (possibly too traumatized by my earlier yelling?!) some soup, fruit and soda bread. Charlotte gets home after 9pm, and just goes to bed with a galss of milk and piece of coffee cake. OH MY! Tomorrow is another day!

Dunkin donuts coffee=Best part of day!

Actually the coffee was part 2 of my good start, the best part was getting to read to Mrs. Fagerland's 2nd grade class. I read The Sandwich Swap, a great story about tolerance and differences, and then stayed to pray with the class, that was the best part!! Holding these small hands and asking GOD to guide our lives, amazing!
So I'm supposed to go in to work today for the express purpose of preparing my part of the in-service we are presenting to Tot spot preschool on Friday. However, on arrival, 2 people who were supposed to work were unable to, so suddenly I'm on the desk the whole time, and not getting too much done on the presen. AAAHHH. I didn't want to do it in the first place, but if i am doing it I'd like to not look like an idiot! I have a feeling I'll be doing this on Thursday night on my own time, very frustrating!

Monday 3/21/11

Ah, Mondays..a new week and garbage night, what a combo! I love to try to find stuff to throw away while i'm cleaning. I got alot of bedroom cleanup accomplished and got a cute new spring spread for our bed. It is fun to "spring"- ify the house, even if it is still freezing out! Wal-mart run,lacrosse practice, and tons of homework finish the night. Danny feeling overwhelmed, but I'm taking the Tiger Mom approach, too bad, work hard and you'll be fine!

Sunday March 3/20

Sleeping in with only one kid..heaven!Mass at 11:30 then I'm off to work for the afternoon. Jerry and Danny do a little homework and then go to the end of the year basketball party, pizza,open gym,it's all good! Then the fam meets up at Loaves and Fishes Dinner and sets,serves and cleans up. Love this ministry!
This weekend went toooo fast!

Spring starts tommorrow,so the cleaning started today!

My day started with cookie baking at 7am.! I wanted to send a batch down to the Deavers house with the girls, and boy did it smell good in the kitchen. Jerry and the girls headed off around 9:30, drove 3/4ths down and went to Steak and Shake for lunch. They met Michael and they headed right out, they were going to an event at their church tonight.
I got busy on cleaning, the kind nobody notices but me(but don't worry, I tell everyone and ask them to compliment me!) I did moldings, floor and ceiling, all kinds of door frames,etc. floors, mantels,fireplace screen, and on and on... GO ME!  More to do, but a good start, one day early!
Place looks great, I got a new lighter coloured rug for the family room and rearranged the furniture to a new spring type feel. HGTV got nothin on me!
Did tune in tonight  to see if I had won the dream home in Stowe, Vermont. sadly, I did not, so no free vacations kids!

The Senior Trip

Hitting the beach

Golfing!

ooo, yeah!

The ultimate Yankee Fan

Lunch on the water in Tampa!

At the Stadium!

The travelers return!

Charlotte and Jer landed just after lunch, just in time for Charlotte to get to play practice. Perfect! Check out the photos, and Jer briefly shared some great insite into her with me. Sometimes getting away gives a new perspective. Busy, crazy day at work..silly issues ending in my knitting group of 3 years being "unstaffed"  I happen to agree with the decision, based on our extreme budget issues, but the way that it came about stunk. I think I ended up OK, but at work, you never know, sometimes one thing is said to you and another said to others.  Danny ends up sleeping at Ryan's house and tomorrow he is headed to Science Olympiad to cheer on Collin and his team.

St. Patrick's Day! Erin Go Bragh!

Dressed in green and toting Irish Soda Bread we all head out into the day..kids to school, where Danny will have a talent show to watch all day, and me to the book fair, i hour in am, 2 hours at lunch time and 2 1/2 hours after school!  I also got to read a story, Leprechauns Don't Lie, to Mrs. Fagerlands second grade class. She introduced me like this,  "kids, most people are readers, but this lady is a story teller"  Wow, this made me feel spectacular! I will go back next week with another book.

Florida runs on Dunkin!

Charlotte's dinner!

The report from Florida continues to be great, from beach,to mini-golf,to Italian dinners, Charlotte and Jerry are having a ball!

Lovin the sunshine and her Yankees!

Senior Trip is here!

Charlotte wheeled her new suitcase out the door this am, and took off for Tampa. Reports coming in from the trip are very positive, a mustang for the rental car, NCAA team practice in downtown Tampa, sunny and 85, great seats for the Yankee game, and an A-Rod homer. Yay!  I am so grateful to GOD for smoothing out the trip, Charlotte can't handle the ups and downs of life too well, especially the downs, so GOD is gracious in his mercy today.

As for the rest of us, we work, we school, we lacrosse practice, we chat(Lindsay!) we make picks, we veg, we blog!

Tuesday 3/15/11 The caddy is out of hibernation!

Never mind the Robin red-breast as a sign of spring, how about the red caddy?!  Jer put it back on the insurance and I took out for a spin, love how that car drives! I miss you Dad.
Charlotte worked today at her lunch room job, and she is really getting excited about her trip tomorrow. Jerry is so great, he is making such a fuss over her, and making this a special trip and time. I bought a bunch of treats at Meijer and stashed them in Charlotte's suitcase, I hope she'll be excited!
Jerry and I hang out and stay up too late, he is watching Detroit 187, and I am going through the 50 guessing slips to see who came closet to the 1924 mini marshmallows..some fun,  eh?!

Monday 3/14/11

Monday==lots of goals, often not realized! Between grocery shopping, lacrosse,knitting,church mission,book fair, packing for Charlotte's trip, and , Oh Yeah, making 50 loaves of soda bread! My cleaning falls by the way side.  Shawne promises that she will help me come clean so I can be motivated, and I can help her when the dogs finally go back to Mike's Mom. I will try to pin her down on this.  Jerry, Molly and Charlotte go to the mission again and enjoy it.

Sunday 3/13/11 Tradition!!!

What a treat! We met the Wisbiski's down at Milan High school for a performance of Fiddler on the Roof. Sam Stokes was Yenta, a big part for a freshman, and she totally stole the show! She whined and kibitzed her way around the stage in her black dress and babushka, it was hilarious! The whole show was great and Theresa had saved great seats for us.
We zipped home for dinner, and then went over to church for the start of our parish mission. It was an awesome night! The theme was Building Strong Families in Shaky Times, certainly a topic worth giving thought and prayer to.  We all began in church together, then the kids went off with Father Joe, and we stayed put and heard a talk from Father Larry, who is hilarious! Being able to laugh while hearing some tough truths is very helpful. Take-away..continue to pray together as a family, and look to "christian socialize" the kids.  Call for more info!

spaghetti dinner dance!

oh yeah! Jerry and Danny are in the Howse! It's hard to appreciate the big hiphop walk going on with out hearing the music, but trust me...it was there, and it was hilarious! The fam volunteered to help serve, clean up and assist with the silent auction at the Special Ministries Spaghetti Dinner at Saint Pats/ we had a ball, good food,great chance to serve. And Danny won the table prize for his table, a lovely green candle, but he was thrilled! The silent auction went well, I went to Kohls and scoped out a bunch of t-shirts and cool jewelery, with a 30%, it was a bag for 50 bucks. I donated it, and they made a good bit of money from it. What was nice was that alot of the items in the auction were expensive, and the idea I had with my stuff was to have some inexpensive things that anyone could afford. The special ministries client who bought the scooby doo t for 6$ was so excited...mission accomplished! Jerry bought me a framed photo taken by my friends Linda and Rich Marth's son Ben. He is a photographer, and this photo was taken in Kyoto, though it is not Japanese. It is a photo of a loading dock in the rain, it looks like a cross. I just liked it, and I'm planning on hanging it in the library. Beautiful, but made more so by the friend connection. Thanks Jerry!
Other activities of the day included the Detroit Science Center for Jer and Danny, bowling for Molly, Ohio State Basketball watching for Charlotte(victory over Michigan!) and cake baking for me (a butterscotch dump cake-supposed to be for the dinner, but they had too many desserts so we HAD to keep it!)

Facebook Fun

Well moving forward in the world of technology this year! GO ME! Molly and I have been working on updating her facebook page. She now has a couple of fans from Brazil! Wow! It is fun to think of the molly story reaching out...cool.
Can't pull myself away from CNN and the earthquake in Japan.  and now a nuclear incident. This is very frightening. I hope and pray for all the families in Japan.

a Park Avenue Apt. that needs TLC?! I could handle that!

Ah, Selling New York, this is like a bowl of ice cream for me(which I gave up for lent 3 years ago and never went back to!) bu without the calories! I would have no problem living in any of them, but my first choice was the one with views of the Empire State building from the bedrooms! My dream!
I worked all day today, and it was a good one. I got alot of positive time with projects, from summer reading to an inservice I'll be a part of a Totspot, the kids old pre-school.
Danny ended up coming over to the library after school and we worked until 5pm. Shot home to get some dinner into the kids(hooray for meat filled leftovers for in between ash wed and Friday!) Then they headed off to basketball practice and Danny and I played some Wii. I never play this with him, but we had fun. I did water skiing and beach volleyball. We are working on not getting upset when things don't go our way, and with those pesky video games we had a chance to practice.

made it over the "hump"!

oh my, another crazy Wednesday! I went to 8:30 mass and picked up my ashes and holy Eucharist and headed to Ashley court, got there around 10am. I did my 2 services and distributed ashes to several rooms as well. what a joy to spend time there. Shot back to church to return extra Eucharist and my ashes, then to Kroger for Mrs. Bic's fixins! It's not Ash Wednesday without Mrs. Bics! Home for coffee and cereal and cooking, got the macaroni prepared and in the oven, salads made and packed up, then over to Danny's school library for volunteer time there. Jerry dropped off the Arbors meal for me, and I went to the library to try to adjust my schedule for tomorrow. Success! Switched with Sherry so I will work day not night, perfect since Jer will be away. Then over to pick up Danny, home to prepare Molly for our interview, and get Danny dinner and ready for lacrosse. Charlotte and Jer off to the 5pm ashes service, Molly and I on a conference call for an hour, Jer drops Charlotte and grabs Danny and takes him to practice. I feed Charlotte and Molly then take Molly to 7pm mass, stop by Meijer to pick up items for the book fair guessing jars I need to put together tonight, stop at work again to pick up a donation from the library to the school auction, over to school to pick up Danny from practice, then home about 8:20, tuck in Charlotte, get Danny in the shower, and get ready to collapse...Wait, work on the guessing jars, right in blog, drink some coffee, then collapse..finally!
one highlight was talking to Susan for a bit while home cooking, though I found out she is way ahead of me on soda bread, having opened the east coast factory early, so now I feel guilty about that! I better get baking!

Book Club and green carnations!

what a whirlwind! From 6am til midnight i was on the go. Driving hither and yon, tracking down 14 green carnations for the Teacher Appreciation lunch, food shopping, costco for Molly's princess cake, with plates,cups,forks napkins and milk and drove the whole thing out to molly's school in Howell. then hurry back to Brighton to pick up Charlotte and drop her at St. Pats for work. then home to put groceries away and eat,then back to get charlotte, then cook dinner, make up questions for book club, clean the bathroom,get Danny from school, pick up charlotte from play practice, feed kids, send the girls and Jer off to the track to work on baton passing with PJ, then greet my book club. Whew! Tonight's book, Passing By Samaria, had been my choice and it was well received. Cindy brought cheesecake, and we chatted til about 9pm. Time to watch a little tube, fold laundry,clean kitchen,start dishwasher and plan for tomorrow. TIRED!

Monday 3/7/11

Danny had his first rehearsal for ByeBye Birdie after school today. I picked up him and Brianna and took them over. We met up with Charlotte and the whole cast, and they were all so nice to the young kids. I can tell that Danny is going to have a blast! Practice 4-6, parent meeting at 6, lacrosse from 6-8, then homework til 9:30.  Long day but fun for the kids.
Jerry and I had breakfast together at Leo's which was awesome, then I had to invest some time into hunting down the lacrosse equipment. That was not fun, but it had to be done. Danny was happy to have his gear.

Sunday 3/6/11 Birthday Brunch

We are blessed to have a Michigan family to help us celebrate the special times in our life, and today was no exception. Karen,Eric,Pat and Patty came over and shared a tasty sausage casserole and coffee cake and fruit and cranberry bread. and coffee and great company too. The girls were very celebrated!
Danny headed off in the afternoon to get one more snowboarding session in with his pals Collin and Ryan, the son was shining and it was so pretty out. Jerry sweetly took over my new faucet project in the girls bathroom. I put in the new light and couldn't get the screws loosened, but it took alot more than just that, and he did the whole thing for me. Unfortunately it makes the shower door look hideous..but one fixture at a time!

Molly's Birthday! 20? Can't be!

Cannot be possible that Molly is 20 today..gosh I remember the day she was born like yesterday. Her fuzzy brown hair, her big blue eyes..she was so sleepy, the nurses made me unwrap her little swaddling to make her chilly and get her to wake up, which she did not like! Jake thought she was pretty special, and was very proud to be a big brother. And all the girly gifts that started pouring in for her, she never had to wear a blue sleeper of Jake's, she was ruffled to the max! Great memories! The girls worked out, then we went to costco to eat samples for lunch,for a special treat! The girls went to bowling to help out with special ministries, and Danny and I made lasagna, then he went to lacrosse. Jer and Stan went to the U of M/State game, which was excellent, very exciting and ended with a MI victory.  Then we had a warm,yummy lasagna,salad and breadsticks dinner, played UNO of course and basically just celebrated Molly-moo.

Friday 3/4/11 Craziness!

Started out fine, up at 6:15, coffee going, Charlotte up, grumpy, Jer offers to drop her at school, so far, so good.....While he is dropping her the phone rings, St. Pats call-out announcing the "never happens in MI 2 hour delay " due to icing. OK, why now, when all the highschool kids are on there way?  OK! so back comes Charlotte and Jer, then he heads off to Novi for meetings. I need to be at work at 9am, so I drop Charlotte off at 8:55am and take Danny with me to work. Molly stays home and I set the timer so she will know when to go outside to get her bus. So far, do-able. Danny has a blast setting up my storytime room with me, and passing out tickets for the program. I have begged a co-worker to drive him across the street at 10:50, because I am smack in the middle of my storytime at that time. I promise her a cappuccino on me! Call Molly at 9:45 and she is on her way outside. OK, now we're all set.  Danny assists with the first bit of the program, doing the bubbles, dancing with me, awesome! and I send him on his way, he is so flexible.  Storytime is great, 65 people in spite of the weather, but a bit chaotic, all kinds of kids on time delay with their toddler siblings, coming and going. So I'm cleaning up at 12:15 and my phone vibrates...it is the house number?? and when I pick it up, it's Molly, crying hysterically. She says "my bus never came", and I say "have you been outside all this time!" Oh my gosh, the poor thing, with no sense of time, has stood out in the wind and then rain, for 2 1/2 hours!  It turns out that after calling the delay, Howell, where her school is, called a day off. Fine, how are people supposed to know?   Molly was so upset, and so was I, I whipped off an email to the superintendent and her teacher, hoping to get some answers. One good thing, our old neighbor and friend Ann and her daughter Lila had come to storytime and were still in the library. I asked if she could go pick up Mol and take her home to play with Lila and have lunch.  Thank Goodness, because it popped Molly right out of hysteria and into fun.  Then took lunch at 3:30 to go pick up Danny at school..this job thing isn't working all that great!
We did all go to see Howell High Schools production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast to celebrate Molly's birthday. It was really great, Cogsworth and Lumiere had great chemistry, and Belle could really sing.  Danny bought Molly a light up rose and she was thrilled with it!
So all's well that ends well!

Work and more!

I've taken on a bunch of hours in March, saving up for the Greece trip, so I was at work today from 10-5. I snuck out and grabbed Danny from school and he came back to the library and got all his homework done. Jerry , Danny his assistant coach and Molly head off to bball practice, while Charlotte and I go to her concert.  It is a quick one, just a chance for all the choir classes to do a performance. Charlotte's group does one song, but it is cool, with wind and rain sound effects that the kids make.  I'm happy that we're home by 8pm!
Ready for veg. time by 9pm, and my fav. HGTV show Selling New York...nothing like viewing those 12,000/week Hamptons rentals and 865,000 650 square foot 1 bedrooms. and one gorgeous 4 bed..needs work but it's only 7.65 million. Love It!
And then, oooeee! House Hunters International is Hong Kong! The family is from Cincinnati Ohio and the Mom has taken a job at HKIS as a counselor, I am jealous! I want to give my kids an adventure too, just need some guts I guess.  So cool to see Hong Kong though, an apmnt on Lan Tau, 5,500, a town house in New Territories,5600,  and a Tai Tam apartment, at 7,700/month. Tai Tam is in between Shek-o and Stanley.  And they choose (my guess is number 3 the place near the school, its a commercial now, I swear, I am not cheating!)  Yes, it's house 3, which they get for a reduced rent of 6430. I want to move there!!! or somewhere.  Thanks Dad for my great foreign adventure!
Donnie- not to be Mom, but maybe you would want to try a foreign adventure??

Wednesday 3/2/11 The Joy of Service

I am blessed to step in for Mary Jo at Ashley Court this morning, and it is just a great time.  One of the activity people is out, so I help get the building 1 and 2 folks marshaled over to the church area. I am still trying to hold off on too much hugging and kissing, though they feel they have turned the corner on the respiratory illness that swept through the place.  10 residents died in January. that is tough. Having been going there for 3 years or so, I know most of the folks who died pretty well and I will miss them.
Wednesday is also my library volunteer day with Danny's class. He has reached the 550 point mark in his AR reading program, he is certainly the top 4th grader, and close to the top of the whole school at this point. Ironically he reads alot of books that aren't even AR books! Go Danny!
Wednesday night after serving pasta up to Molly,Charlotte,Collin,Ryan and Danny the boys head off to Lacrosse practice, Jer to his knights meeting and the girls to the basement to watch TV!

Tuesday 3/1/11

Can you erase your blog entry so you are not ashamed??  Cause I must confess dear readers (if there are any!) that I did not start working out today. I could give you my usual excuses...but I won't. I am still going to try to get myself going!


studious boys!

 Charlotte had the day off today, and we both were on lunch duty. Those 8th graders are getting tall and fresh! They are ready to graduate for sure. At 1pm Charlotte and I went directly to the library where she had a 2 hour meeting with a career transition person, who is trying to help us determine what Charlotte might be good at, and happy doing in her future. I didn't realize how long it would be and was "forced" to relax at the library and read Time magazine for a couple of hours. Poor me!  Great articles though, so I'm ready for my next cocktail party(do you remember that commercial they used to have?)  I picked up Danny from school at 3"45 and snagged Collin and Ryan as well. Rhonda's Dad is having an artery surgery and so the boys are staying with us for the night. What a treat, after a giant 2 hour snowball fight, they set up homework central in the library and worked like little beavers. When it came time for the 4th graders to study social studies, Collin made it into a game show and had them buzzing in with the answers.  What good kids!  I wish I had triplets!