Happy Father's Day 2013

I said to Jerry this morning, after I poured his coffee and warmed up some tasty spinach-feta muffins, "Isn't it odd that we don't have Dad's to do Father's Day for anymore?"  We celebrate their memory and pray for them in church but now we celebrate Jerry and Jake and the younger Dads. It just re.ally feels different! So now, back to the celebrating! Super Dad Jake went to work to support his daughter, spending 6am-2pm hauling garbage and weed whipping at Kensington Metro Park. Super Dad Jerry took the girls to the boxing club at 12noon. Jer and I finally finished off the pile of mulch we had delivered a couple of weeks ago, and man does the yard look nice.  Then we all headed out to Bagger Daves in downtown Brighton for an early Father's Day dinner. The food was fine, fries fresh and hot, sweet potato chips came with a tasty sauce and we got to sit on the patio, which was fun. We followed up the meal with a walk around downtown. Cassie loved seeing the nine baby ducklings sitting with their Mother and going on the playground. Seeing Jake sliding down the slide with her in his arms made my heart swell. GOD is good, last year he spent his first Father's Day in Afghanistan and now he is safe and sound and sharing it with his Dad and his daughter. So a Happy Father's Day to everyone!

9/15/11 A New Dad

The family at the Millpond

The Two Dads, in their awesome Daddy shirts :)

Molly and Charlotte both made great cards for Jerry

Cassie LOVED the slide!

Big one or small one, the slide was the ride of the day

Make Way for Ducklings!

Thanks for the ride Dzadza!

Father's Day dessert!

June 15, 2013 Lindsay Stewart is going to be a Mommy!

That little girl who poked her sweet face into my window 19 years ago, her long hair pulled back in a scrunchy and her wire framed glasses perched on her cute nose, is now a glamorous Mom-to-be, with a masters degree,her own home in Tennessee and a handsome husband too! My how things change. And if that isn't enough, she ran 15 miles/week until her 29th week! Her belly is as high and tight as an Army haircut! The one thing that hasn't changed is her sweet nature and our love for her. It is so much fun to see the kids you knew growing into these phenomenal and happy adults. It makes you feel old, yet it is strangely gratifying all the same.
Karen and her sister Chris threw a beautiful baby shower today for loads of Michigan friends and family members. Karen's patio sparkled with paper lanterns in the purple and green colour scheme and bouquets of fresh flowers. The sun was shining and the heat and rain held off (the first rain shower came 1 hour after the party ended! great timing!) allowing the guest to sit and visit in the terraced space. The food table was laden with six different tasty salads, bread sticks and mini muffins. Karen let me do the muffins, which was really fun! I prepared spinach feta, apple cheddar, pumpkin with orange glaze and blueberry cornmeal. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, and the special baby cake from the Stewart's favourite bakery. Lindsay and Russ have chosen NOT to find out the sex of the baby (she says it is trending back to having it be a surprise..that's the way I liked it!) so the shower gifts were filled with yellows,grays,greens and whites. Baby showers are so happy and fun and this one was no exception. The girls and Cassie enjoyed visiting with all the guests and the delicious foods.

Charlotte, Lindsay and Molly share a moment 

The gang's all here

Molly loves her new dress!

Catie and Patty

Karen and her sister Chris

The craft area. Karen asked guest to do fingerprint art, give advice for a memory book and add beads to a Labor Necklace..we said a prayer and each added two beads to make a necklace Lindsay will wear during labor (if they don't forget it at home as they freak out and race out the door to the hospital! Oh wait, that was me and the camera!)

Cassie took a little nap during the festivities!

The food table...YUM!

Charlotte enjoyed the gift opening

Beautiful Lindsay and a new friend for her baby

Cute, right?

Cassie loved wearing her party dress

taking a break in the lilies

Michigan Grad's Karen, Lindsay, and Sam via skype, liked the little cap for football Saturdays!

Cassie enjoyed running up and down the hill in the yard

Cass checks out a little metal frog

You will travel back in time.....so hold on tight!!

Okay, here's the deal...

I AM SICK OF FEELING GUILTY ABOUT MY BLOG!!!

Every night as I exhaustedly plop down in front of HGTV or Fox News 10pm I feel wracked with guilt that I am not blogging. And the thing is I like doing it! It is so nice to have this diary to look back on, for me and to someday show the kids. Maybe I need to recommit to the daily pledge like I did my first year, I seemed to handle mandates better! even from myself! BUT, in the meantime, what to do?? So of course Time Travel was my first thought! Wouldn't it be yours??!!  I plan to blog today on today, and then move backward for the next bunch of entries, hopefully in the next week or so. So hang on as the whirling vortex of time travel takes you  BACK...Back....back....

Special Olympics Spring Sports May 7/8...

Two new sports were added to our schedule this week--Golf and Softball. Jake has taken on the role of Charlotte's unified golf partner and they head off on Tuesday nights to Hawk Meadows in Howell. They usually get home at 9:30-crazy late for Charlotte, but she is so happy! I think spending time with Jake is really special to her. Molly has decided to take a year off from golf, and it is kind of nice for Charlotte to have a solo sport. Wednesday night brings softball, conveniently located at Maltby, from 6-8. Both girls are playing and Jake and Jerry are helping out when they can. Livingston County is fielding two teams this year and the girls are thrilled to be on Amy Border's team. She showed Charlotte a new batting stance and POW! Charlotte hit a big shot...boy was she happy. Special Olympics is the rhythm in our day, the joy, the smiles, the chance to meet up with friends, the time for us parents to smile and support each other.

Making my Mom feel as special as she is!

Surprise! My Mom came up to my sisters house to spend the weekend. We had a family communion on Saturday and plans for a play and dinner on Sunday. What she didn't know was that I was going to be there. I arranged to fly home on Tuesday and headed to Parsippany after the panel wound down on Friday afternoon.I spent a wonderful couple of hours sitting out on Susan's driveway in the sunshine visiting with she and Allie while we waited for Mom to arrive. Boy was she surprised to see me! In fact she was so thrilled I felt a bit bad, because Sooz is the one who arranged the play and dinner plans. I don't want to be a glory hog! We had a beautiful weekend together, full of sunshine and fun. We spent Saturday morning at Christopher's soccer game and the afternoon at Mickey's house celebrating Taylor's first communion. We plopped Mom on the deck under the umbrella with Uncle Joe and they held court there as the elder statesmen of the family. The food was great and Mickey had finished his kitchen remodel at 1:30 am the morning of the communion! On Sunday we went to mass, then over to the Paper Mill Playhouse to see Thoroughly Modern Millie. I remember going to the papermill with my girl scout troop and on school field trips and it is still a neat little spot. Susan had gotten us great seats and the show was fantastic! There is so much good dancing, and it is funny and happy, the perfect Mother's Day type play. Then we went over to a new restaurant that recently opened at South Mountain Reservation. It overlooks the lake and you can see the little Zoo train going by across the water. It was quite pricey but the food was gourmet and good. We had a lovely time, with loits of good conversation. Monday morning Mom headed back to Toms River and Susan and I spent the day shopping, drinking coffee and talking nonstop! In other words, a perfect day! Tuesday my car arrived early and I got to the airport so quickly I was able to get on an earlier flight--don't worry, I still kept my first class seat! What a wonderful time with my Mom and my sister and brother-a gift of time and love.

Cousin Mickey

Amy and Taylor

Taylor loved Mom's gift

Susan, Mom and me

our show

Susan, Catherine and Donnie

Mom and Catherine at The Boathouse

yummy dessert

family group!

our whole group

A Parenting Panel? Moi?! 5/3/13

Okay, the coolest thing! I get an email from my friend Ted in NYC asking if I would like to come out there and be a part of a panel discussion. With no further info my response was "YES!" I didn't know anything other than I could go to New York, but that was enough for me! The panel was being held to discuss the results of a survey dealing with parents today, social media and technology issues, and if its harder to parent in the world today.  A beautiful short film tribute to Eunice Kennedy  The panelist were myself, Andrew Shue of Melrose Place fame, who is now an owner and writer on the site Cafemoms, MaryLou Retton, yup, that MaryLou Retton! A Mom who has the biggest web presence for Latina Moms and a gal that is a head of school at the Ideal School in NYC, a private school with a 30% Special Needs population. What an interesting and diverse group. The panel discussion was moderated by Dana Points, the Editor in Chief of Parents magazine. We all gathered on the rooftop of a building on 48th and 11th with stunning views of midtown and the river. The weather was perfect, blue skies and sun sparkling off the buildings, and the swanky rooftop room was filled with white flowers and posters of our Mom Wisdoms, which we had sent in prior to the event. It was hard to choose, since I am so smart, but the one I went with for this was,
"Give your best to the world and the world will give its best back to you!"
Various media outlets were invited to hear us talk, mostly lots of bloggers and magazines. The discussion went faster than I thought it would and I did not feel that it was my best day. I had trouble finishing my thoughts before they moved on to the next person(note to self-don't be so long winded!)
but the PR firm and Ted said we did a great job. It was cool to stand around and chat with MaryLou Retton, who of course I watched on TV and worshipped. First American woman to win a gold medal in all-around,first woman on a Wheaties box, maybe the tiniest adult I have ever met. She has four daughters, the first of whom is a senior in high school, so even though she is famous, it was regular Mom chat. A couple of my pals from P&G were there and it was great to see them. In fact, on Thursday night we all went out to a cool restaurant called Quality Meats for dinner and a lot of laughing!
All in all it was a fantastic experience and I am so happy that Thank You Moms gave me the chance to participate.