Ashley Court Day, happy and sad

Today was a tough and joy-filled day. I returned to my service at Ashley Court after a couple of months off. I am so happy to be back, because that place just fills you! And since I've been going for about 4 years, there is a sense of family and returning home. You go in and you look around at all the familiar faces, and start to hug and kiss everyone.  Then what  happens is that you realize all the people that have died while you were away.  Sweet Joyce, Mary Luther-who I would bring communion to in her room, Marge, Big Bill the Marine(who ran for first base in our first Young Neighbors softball game) and several others. And Arthur is dying today--he is in his bed, looking like Dad did on his last day. His son the priest is in town, his brother and his daughter were there today. They asked me to pray with them, which is so amazingly wonderful and hard. I talked about how special Arthur was and how much I loved to dance with him, and hugged his daughter tightly. I also put a tiny crumb of the Body of Christ in his cheek, just like Daddy, his last food on earth is his first food in heaven.
The kids all went with me, and seeing them with the residents makes me so proud. Bertha in building 3 was very upset today and was crying when Danny and I arrived there. He went right to her and held her hands, she wouldn't let him go, so he just crouched there and comforted her.
 "They'll know we are Christians by our love"

Forced to go to IKEA!! poor me!

I had some things to give to Cammy that had been left from the shower on Saturday. I was going to put them in the mail, but after I made the scrapbook and some gifts were delivered here, I thought, "this is stupid, she lives 45 minutes away...so I did the good thing, and called and arranged to meet her. And in trying to come up with a good spot, decided that the Ford rd. Tim Horten's would be a likely spot...what's that you say? why yes, that is the IKEA exit! Coincidence? I think not!! So after we met up and passed off the things to Cammy, we zoomed over to IKEA and did some shopping. If Charlotte was heading to college(wish it was so...) we would be buying her all kinds of things, so we bought a chair, a new pasheena(spelling of this Polish word?!) cover, a shelf, and another stuffed dog for her "collection"! Danny also got some things to update his space...now we just have to organize it. His clothes are getting so big that they don't really fit in his dresser anymore..so we will reorganize his clubhouse/closet, and see how we do there.
Had more leftovers for dinner, and spent the evening happily following those Swedish picture directions we love so much, Life is Good!

Monday August 29 Molly rocks her speech!

Well after much practice, and not a lot of sleep, Molly knocked her speech out of the park! There were about 350 people at the opening day for LESA teachers and staff, and the goal was to get them inspired for the new school year. I think her speech did just that! The day opened with the bell choir, which Molly is a member of, ringing America The Beautiful. Then Jacque did a little intro about  Molly, then she stepped up, raised the mike up like we had showed her, and spoke, slowly and clearly, and even waited for the applause which kept breaking out to die down before she went on... WOW!!!
She spoke about how she had been in the LESA program for 19 years, and had learned to walk on the old pathways building with the help of PT Robyn Acker(formerly Uitti). Later this evening, when I was at work, Robyn and Kate actually came over to the house, Robyn was so moved she had to come and see Molly and tell her what a great job she had done! So I am super happy and proud!

not planning any events!

Boy, was it nice to wake up and not have to think about what I needed to do for a party! I'm done! Of course I still had clean-up and a couple of returns...but who cares!
Got up at 7 and went to 9:30 mass with Jerry, missionary Sunday, so we ran super long. It is inspiring to hear about Priests devoting their lives to the message of preaching JESUS.
Jerry and the kids head down to Ohio for Gary Allan's BBQ and I get a pass! I'm happy that I get a day to chill.
I have my cereal and head out,returns at Target and Party City, purchase of a scrapbook at Michael's and then copy and print photos at Meijer. I decided to make Cammy a scrapbook of the shower. I moved the mahjong table into the family room, popped on weather channel and HGTV and made a scrapbook. I think it came out cute and I hope she likes it.
Other than that, did a little cleaning, a little laundry, a little coffee drinking, an excellent day.
Also, hurricane Irene roared through NJ, but thank GOD that all the family is safe and fine. They hadn't even lost power! I'm glad Mom made out okay, and Claire is waiting to heat when she can move down to school.

Cammy's Baby Shower

the kids idea of fun! Leah,Collin.Annabelle,Danny and Ryan

my little lunch room!

centerpieces! Roseanne made the marshmallow kabobs and dipped pretzels

The hosts of the party!

don't the cupcakes look beautiful?

my fabulous party buddy-couldn't have done it without her!

Cammy's Mom Bella made the cake, it was very pretty

Cammy and Danny at the buffet

Rhonda and Molly sample the chicken salad

Cammy's Mom got her a sash to wear at the party, it says Mommy-To-Be

I taped a long colouring sheet on the floor for the kids, here is Annabelle and Leah

Cammy's friends Sim, her daughter Nicole and my Cynthia

Beautiful Charlotte

Cammy and Annabelle playing the feely bag game

"hhmm-what is this??"

Lynn Cluskey, Cindy, Patty and Charlotte

Baby Shower--BLAST OFF!

And it's finally here! Jerry and I brew coffee and go for a slow 3 mile run. Great way to boost the energy(only slept for 4 1/2 hours) and then we start setting up, doing last minute food,etc. Roseanne drops off her gorgeous cupcakes and candy twirled pretzels and trades for a cup of coffee. By the time all is said and done, coffee brewing in the large pot, cranberries added to the salad, I didn't even get a chance to shower! I threw on a dress and checked on my "staff" Danny,Ryan and Collin serving drinks, Jerry refilling things, Molly greeting at the door and Charlotte carrying gifts to the sun porch.
Menu:
Apps- pepper jack cheese and crackers,spring rolls
main-spinach salad, chicken salad with croissants/foccacia rolls, summer slaw, lemon potato salad. Asian salad, fruit salad, mini muffins.
dessert- Baby cake,cupcakes,sea salt caramels, dipped pretzels and dipped marshmallow kabobs
party favours-homemade lemon blueberry scones or brownies in cute bags

We played a couple of games after lunch; a guessing grab bags, a famous mother quiz, and a read-aloud quote

I think it went well! Cammy seemed happy with all the gifts she recvd and it is always fun to see all the cute presents. Highchair,stroller,bouncy seat, blankets,outfits,

We also did new mom advice cards and a book basket.

And off we go! Cammy will head to Fort Drum on 9/2, and her Mom will follow on the 12th. She said she would let us know when she has the baby(I would imagine!!!)and she and her Mom,Annabelle and a friend left at 6:30pm.

I clean and crash!
They'll know we are Christians by our LOVE!

Baby Shower T-minus 1 day and freaking!

Well, off  Molly and I went to Flint this am, for her to make her celebrity appearance. One problem, NO PHOTOS TO SIGN! Ok, roll with the punches, and I have Molly handing out green rubber bracelets and saying Hi to people. She walks around the venue and makes friends-no surprise there! All the SO staff is great and we enjoy hanging out. Wish we could do the race tomorrow but the shower calls! The photos arrive at 1:30(they did buy her a subway lunch) and she finally gets to start signing! We play the commercial on a laptop while she is sitting there. Finally we leave at around 2:30, and after hitting traffic we arrive about 4pm at the house. Oh my, I thought I would be home way earlier, and shoot into shower prep mode. I bake scones for the favour bags, go to Target to get the last minute gifts, bake brownies, clean,etc. I am up til 2am! Holy smokes.

Baby Shower- T-minus 2 days and counting

Here we go! First a meeting to rehearse Molly's speech to the LESA staff on Monday-she needs to practice! Then a Dunkin run for the kids to spend the gift cards that Brian gave then, latte's and donuts for all. next stop Gordon Foods, the restaurant supply store for muffins,croissants,etc. Home,school with Danny,then to the Party city store to get the pink and brown table goods, then home to set it up, Back out to get Ryan,who is spending the night, then fix dinner and set up living room for the party. serve dinner, then kids off to soccer with Jerry, and me to Costco. More food, more money! Yikes, what will Jer say when he sees the bills. And I haven't even bought the crib yet! Started cooking, made coleslaw, cooked the chicken ,and made the potato salad. GO ME!

The Boss dinner- A Success!

Well, big event 1 is done!
Brian and Jerry arrived home from the office around 4:30, and we all headed to the park.  We ran about 4 miles and then did a relay race! Brian is a great sport and seemed to enjoy himself. When we got home the men took a shower and we ate dinner. I had prepared stuffed peppers,  cheddar,bacon mini corn bread loaves, and applesauce. After some ping pong and shuffleboard, we have cake-a from scratch buttermilk poppy seed bundt cake with french silk icing! The whole meal gets rave reviews, but who knows if he is just being nice. The other fantastic thing, he and Jerry put the old couch out in the garage, so now I can set up the living room with small card tables!
Danny's school went well, we opened the day with mass.  Father Karl told me/Danny that he was really happy that we were homeschooling! I was surprised because I thought that he might wonder why we weren't at St. Pats. I feel very blessed as we start the year.

the cake-yum!

Brian and Molly

the running group

you too Kerry, get in there...OK!

Back at BDL

Had a chance to work this afternoon, and thought I'd better get my dupa in there before they forget who I am! I worked with Anne and Jen, doing Teen Gaming, and didn't even step foot into childrens! It was great. Jerry ended up at the Polish Village Cafe(with new outdoor tables!) with his boss Brian, who had been craving the dill pickle soup and beef rolls since his last visit to Detroit. The kids fended for themselves, playing Wii,reading,dancing and watching baseball. They probably were quite happy to be alone.
We also did a Sally's run, dropping off 2 bags, and scoring several baby items for the grab bag game, and half off kids things.
Danny and I continued our schooling. We did have some computer issues again, and hope to resolve them for good this week. It is frustrating to be working on a section and have it shut down on Danny. But I like it so far and he seems to.
Closed the evening with a Meijer run, got most of my groceries for the boss dinner and the party on Saturday. GO ME!

Monday 8/22/11 First Day of School!

I'm excited and I think Danny is too! I have him set his alarm for 8am. I get up at 6:30 and run 5miles and start on my coffee intake! Day sets up like this:
8am-coffee/cocoa on sunporch with a read-aloud
8:30 breakfast and reading
8:50 dress/tidy self and room
9-10 English-today did grammar and poetry/reading for content
10-10:15 Jump on the trampoline
10:15 Math

This was the first day, so some things on the computer didn't work as planned, and I needed to make 2 calls to the company, and change settings,shutdown and restart, the usual! But hopefully tomorrow. will be better.
We went to get Charlotte from 12-4, then finished up the math when we got home. Each day will include 45 minutes of reading, and all books will have a short oral or written book review done. So far, that's where I'm at!

Charlotte seemed to have fun, but threw a big tantrum at dinner, possibly needing to let her freak out after holding it together for 2 days, but it sure made you feel nostalgic for last night when dinner was so peaceful. Still trying to resolve this...

We stopped at the Birch Run outlets, hadn't been in years. I remember driving up to them whenever Susan would come out here, so we could go to the Esprit outlet. Danny got some new "school clothes", it will be weird not having a uniform to put on/worry about.

Starting to get a little worried about my week,work tomorrow night, boss the next night, then shower Saturday...wish me luck!!!

Girl's morning out! Sunday 8/21/11

What a fun morning! Met Donna,Shawne and Patty at the movie theatre and we saw The Help. Oh gosh,it was fantastic! Each character was so well cast and well acted, and of course the story is fantastic. It actually made me want to reread the book. Afterwards we went to Leo's for lunch and to chat about the movie and life. Great times!
We went to 5pm mass and then the kids and Jerry went to hit baseballs and they stopped downtown for icecream. There were classic cars parked on the street and Danny enjoyed hearing about them from Jerry. Tomorrow we pick up Charlotte!

Charlotte heads to Camp Fishtales

We left the house at 8:15 and headed north to Pinnconing. We arrived at Camp Fishtales right on time and were first to check in and get Charlotte her pick of bunk beds! The camp is small and cute looking and the leaders seemed really friendly. It is a small group and I think she will do great. It is especially god that it is only 2 nights and 3 days, this will be perfect for her.  After we left we stopped at the Pinconning Cheese factory outlet. They had at least 20 different types of cheese samples, including chocolate cheese! We bought a bunch of different kinds including horseradish with pickles(Dad, that one's for you!) At home we ate lunch and watched some Johnny Quest while a rain storm passed through, then went out to do some shower shopping. Jerry,Molly and Danny went to the Howell bowl-a-drome for a night of bowling as a fundraiser for Special Ministries. They had a blast! Then we had a ping pong tourney, while watching the Tigers win big! Ended the night with a couple of episodes of McHales Navy, our latest favourite show! An excellent day:)

Charlotte's camp

Charlotte's cabin

the fishing lake

the cheese outlet...milk that giant cow!!

Howell Melon Run 2011

melon ice cream

the family that runs together stays together!

Danny and Jacob

fun in Howell

cartwheel finish

Molly limps in, but she makes it!

running Danny in.....

toughest 10 year old in town

sweaty and triumphant

goofing with the Sapienza kids

Coach PJ gives Charlotte a boost!

testing the medical staff at the melon run!

Molly and Danny after he received his cup for second place!

What a night! We watched toddlers roll melons(downhill, so it was a hoot!) then kids run the mile, then we all took off in the 5K and 10K. It was hot, but the course was beautiful, and we all finished in good time. Hung out with the Sapienza family, Russ and Amy, who are SO coaches, and Karol Christianson, who lives right on the course and came to cheer us on. Free melon ice cream to the runners too! Danny felt sick afterwards, and we had to skip a late snack at Karols and head home. Probably just as well, we got home after 10 and had to take showers! And we were hungry, because with the race timing we didn't eat dinner. So we all got to bed late, tired but proud!

The Zucchini's have landed!

zucchini apple bread, zucchini breads with chips, zucchini bread with pecans, fudge chocolate zucchini cake!

I bought some zucchini, it was cheap! Karen went to Maine, she gave me her zucchini. Went to store them in the fridge, there was more zucchini in the veg. draw/ So Danny and I started baking. We had fun cooking and the house smelled awesome. We also went to Howell and signed up for our race tomorrow night. And we broke out our new panini maker and, guess what? Yup, we made paninis!  They were great.  Danny read and face timed with Chris, Molly finished her puzzle, Charlotte word searched, and they all lifted. I walked with Shawne.  Then we all trooped off to Soccer practice.....

Really Bad morning

Oh gosh, Charlotte had said to me last night that she wanted to run with me this morning. We headed out at 8am, and it was awful from the start. She did all her usual things to try to get me to flip out, and added on the haven't seen it in a while but always effective "I need to go to the bathroom" when we were 3 miles from home. It turned into an awful yelling,pushing,going into the mosquito infested woods(of course she couldn't go in there) and just indescribable horror. We got home at 9:20, covered in mud, shit,snot and tears. And then its clean her up, clean up the bathroom where she took her clothes off while I got a drink of water and tried to control myself, and then deal with feeling so bad about the near child abuse that was taking place. It was so bad.
Took kids to lake with Jack and Leah as planned at 10am. It was chilly, Thought we'd come back here and hang out but Jack wanted to go home..Danny was bummed. Got home, served lunch,got coffee and a bowl of cereal, then had Karol stop by with a baby gift for the shower and a nice visit. Jer calls to say he is on his way home, the Caddy broke down in OHIO and he ended up missing his important meeting. The poor guy. Had Molly bring down a puzzle that she and Charlotte and I worked on in the library, which was fun.
Just reeling from the day, and will pray hard for a better one tomorrow.
Dinner a hamburger helper feast, then Jer offered to take the kids to the park to hit baseballs.

Tuesday 8/16 Kohls 30%

Finally got a 30-ironically it arrived yesterday and is only good til Wednesday(ie:tomorrow) so Shawne and I went for a few hours this afternoon. Danny and Charlotte went to play with her kids, so that was cool. We shopped for pants for her, though I got a bed-set for the guest room/craft room bed and a pair of shoes for Molly. We had a good time hanging out sans kids!
Walked with Jerry in the am, and did a kettlebell workout with Danny, wow that is challenging! Soft taco dinner a big hit!

Monday 8/15 Relax?

Relax? All but one, one small mother,had troubles both weary and weighty, plenty of trouble and all caused by....
Hmmmm, good question! Caused by lack of faith? not enough sleep? too high expectations? ingesting too much cereal? not enough enthusiasm for housecleaning?
Who the heck know.
Tough past two weeks, and now trying to get re-energized for the kids, the upcoming shower, the laundry..!
Started out with Molly and I going to mass for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. Excellent homily by Father Mark, and good visiting afterwards. I even got to be an EM again!
Onward!!

Mass x 2!

Hey let's go to 11:30 mass this morning..the kids can sleep in, especially Danny, and I can help my friend Linda who needs an EM sub. Great plan right?! We relax and drink coffee and have breakfast, change and head out. While I'm signing in for communion, I glance down and see our name below. WHAT??? We are scheduled for 5pm.! I feel so bad! But we were meant to be at the first mass, Father Mark's homily speaks directly to our hearts regarding our latest situation and addition to the family. lesson- no matter what the question is, LOVE is the answer!
Home we go, to some paper reading, a big family workout(and cleaning up all the junk I pulled out while finding the stuff Jake wanted to take with him)and before you knew it it was time to get dressed in church clothes again and head back to St. Pats. Father Karl says this mass, and it is actually a vigil mass for the Assumption tomorrow of the Blessed Mother. We got to sing Salve Regina! And Danny made it through the mass without feeling sick. I had a roast in the oven, with beef from the freezer in the ongoing ETI plan and I'm happy about that. Danny and Jerry watch Duck Soup curled up in the chair together, and their laughter fills my heart.

Saturday 8/13 3 days in one! (at least it feels that way!)

7am-pile into the Traverse to head for Springhill with Molly,Charlotte,Jerry, Rhonda and Ryan. The ride flies by with our company, and the kids munch granola bars and juice.
9:30 am- gates open and we get Danny's luggage on New Fro, turn around and get Collin's on Storybrook, turn around and park at New fro, take a walk, check out, go to the trading post, then go to the auditorium for mini rallies(big rally rained out)
10:45 Rally for Collin's group of Scurvy Dogs! He seems like he had a great time but looks really tired!
11:15 Danny's mini rally in the gym. He was a bit homesick on Mon and Tuesday, but only when things slowed down, so his counselors helped him work it out and he had a great week.
12noon  On the road home. We pass out banana chips, drinks and home baked cookies and tell the kids they'll get lunch when we get home.
2:30 HOME! The michigan autobahn was in full swing today and we flew! Sandwiches served to everyone!
3:30 pm  Arbours leave, Jake and Cammy arrive. We have a fire going and we all do S'mores, which Danny missed at campfire Thursday night, and he feels happy about it!
5:30  After hanging out outside, we move to the kitchen and play Greed,all together...FUN!
6:45  Jake and I shoot out to grab him a haircut, in a sprinkle which turns into a blowing monsoon as soon as I am on the road! Running from the car into the hairplace at Walmart, we are soaked to the skin!
7:30 Meet up at Leo's for a family dinner to farewell Jakie at his favourite old haunt. I would have cooked had I known how long they could stay!
9pm We give Jake and Cammy some of Jake's old baby clothes(his santa suit, the little red sweater set form my old Ecco Bosses) and some photos. They seem to like them. Jake suddenly decides he'd like his guitar,his warhammer things and some books...okay, down to the basement to tear it apart and locate these boxes. Found them-good! place looks like a bomb went off-bad!
9:30pm Goodbye to Jake and Cammy-we will miss Jake, it was great to see him. We plan to head to Fort Drum soon.
WHAT A DAY!

Springhill Saturday

My boys

Danny and his counselors

knucklehead,inc.

the staff talking about how awesome Danny is

Eagle Creek Lumber Camp

my boys!

oh yeah!

home is a toasty place!

buds

sticky and super sweet!

Danny and Cammy

Cammy shows off the perfect S'more

one last hug