Tuesday, August 26, 2008

RANDOM STUFF

No special reason to post tonight...just some recent pictures I haven't put up. Mom was tired of the bedding she had and wanted a change so she picked this out at Target and she loves it...for now anyway! :-)



Last night Alex was my helper and helped me prepare dinner, I'm so lucky to have him and I will truly miss these special days when he's older and doesn't want to hang around mom as much. I cherish all of the moments I have with him while he's still a little boy and so close to me.



Jim came home from work tonight and was playing a little guitar and mom was enjoying the serenade and parked herself on the corner piece of my sectional that I have by the window in the living room. It was actually pretty funny because I looked up and she was sitting there. :) Ignore all the plastic bags...Alex was working on another 'project' yesterday and was trying to make a parachute again!!

Monday, August 25, 2008

Tropical Storm hits Florida

Man oh man...was mom ever upset about this storm that wreaked havoc on Florida...because she wasn't there to make sure everything was ok! I have to say that we prayed for the best and we got just what we needed...mom's house didn't take on any water at all which is a miracle if you look at these pictures!!




It won't be long before the flip flops need to be put away here in New York so I took mom shopping and we found some really nice warm and fuzzy slip on shoes that she likes! :) I hope they keep her feet toasty this fall.


I haven't had much time to post lately....but I have been keeping busy and will try to get caught up soon.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Happy 11th Birthday to Alex

On monday our boy turned 11, I can hardly believe it! With Nancy here for the weekend we packed a lot into 48 hours, let me tell you!! On friday night we took Alex to see the new Star Wars Clone Wars movie and he really enjoyed it , complete with the $20.00 worth of popcorn and snacks! Hey, it's not often we take him to the movies so I splurged, he deserved it!

Saturday we had a family get together in Staten Island with all of my nephew Jason's cousins and aunts on his mom's side of the family. I can hardly believe it was 2 months ago that Jason passed away and getting to spend time with all of his aunts, uncles and cousins was really special, we had a great day. Jason's mom, Fran, passed away in 2004 from cancer and she had 2 sisters and we went to the home of one of her sisters, Rosette. I loved her back yard and the main reason is because there is no grass so no worries about mowing!! It is all paved and there is a beautiful pool which Alex thoroughly enjoyed especially since there was a 'cousin' there that was only a few years younger and they got along great and had fun all day together.



Jim had 2 guitars in the trunk of the car and it was fun to see him play and enjoy himself with his brother all afternoon and well into the evening. Everyone enjoyed the live music and we ate amazing food all day! I had made a basket out of a watermelon and put fresh cut up fruit salad in it and I couldn't have done it without some great help! Alex helped me cut up the watermelon and Nancy helped me cut up some of the fruit! Thanks sis! :) One thing that happened that I thought was hysterical and I told Jim about it and we laughed is that when Jim walked into the yard with the 2 guitars Alex was in the pool with Michael and I overheard him say, "Your dad has guitars and he thinks he's going to play!" to which Alex replied, "Oh don't worry my dad plays awesome, he has his own rock band!"


On sunday we took Alex out for his birthday shopping trip at Toys R Us and he picked up a few things that he liked and then after a quick stop at White Castle for some lunch we headed over to Boomers amusement park where he spent the next 4 hours on all the rides! He must have gone on the roller coaster 20 times and Jim and I just sat on the bench and watched him run to get back in line after each ride, it was quite comical to see. The one down side was that he is about 55-56" and you need to be 58" to be a 'driver' on the Go Karts so he was pissed off that he had to ride as a passenger and decided to be pissy with Jim and I for a while...he even blamed me because he is short...lol...ok, whatever..he got over it eventually but not before playing an entire round of miniature golf all the while telling Jim and I to stay back and give him his space and let him play alone...it is pretty funny now that I think about it.

The bumper boats are always a hit and the line to get on them is usually long and when Alex was on them he was squirting the water gun at the crowd waiting in line for their turn and at the end they applauded him and as he walked by after his ride everyone was giving him high fives because they were happy that he cooled them off, I thought that was pretty funny!!


Yesterday was mom's first appointment at Stonybrook Cancer Center and so many good things happened there I can't even begin to type it all out but I will try because I know a lot of her friends and family read my blog. (HI MADELEINE!!!)

I had made the appointment with Dr. Gabig because mom's doctor in Florida told me to see him because he knew him and said he was a great oncologist. When I made the appt. no one asked me what type of cancer she has and just gave me the appointment. We get there and the nurse does all the vitals and takes us to the room and then Dr. Gabig's assistant comes in and tells us that he is a lung cancer doctor and wanted to know why we had made the appt with him and I explained why! So, long story short now we are told we need to see Dr. Wu who is the brain cancer specialist there. What is amazing about this to me is that when Jason was on the hospital I met a woman outside who had just had brain surgery performed by the same neurosurgeon who took care of Jason and she told me that she has the same cancer as mom and that she would be seeing Dr. Wu at Stonybrook!! She told me that if I got mom up to NY that I should seek out Dr. Wu because he is the best for brain cancer and has a great track record! Wow....I remembered his name and when they told us that mom would be seeing him yesterday I told her the story about that woman I met at Brookhaven hospital back in June! The other part of the story is that this woman also lived in Florida and when she found out she had brain cancer she moved back to Long Island to be near her children and grandchildren so I told mom that story to show her how much it means to us that she is with us now so that my children can spend time with her that is precious, making memories and just being together.

Here is mom waiting to see the doctor.


This is a really long post but hey...sometimes I get diarrhea of the keyboard and that's just how it goes. The last thing I wanted to share is my gift to myself that I bought on Ebay...it's my new TV in my kitchen...so now I can watch the news, or Oprah...or my boy Curtis (Take home Chef on TLC) while I make dinner!! Whoo!! I had a small 9" tv on the kitchen counter for a while but it recently broke and I've wanted an under counter one for a while now and this one was a great price, I love it!!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Friday Update

It was getting to be time for us to start thinking about updating our kitchen and our appliances but I'd been putting it off and even I have to admit that our stove was getting really bad, too many spills and things burned on the top of it and the drip pans were replaced countless times but still no matter what we did it was never 'clean' enough. Once mom came to live with us she let us know that the stove was unacceptable and every time she walked by she would say it was gross or disgusting and we kept saying, "But it works fine, it still cooks..." but eventually after 2 weeks I relented and went out and got a new stove and it's my first ceramic cooktop, I just hope it stays nice, I've been anal about cleaning it every time I use it and I bought an electric griddle to use whenever I fry anything so that I don't get grease on the stove.



Naturally when the delivery men were here Alex spotted the box for our stove and wanted it and I told him he could have it but then he noticed they also had an empty refrigerator box and that was even more enticing so they let him have it...it's been in my living room ever since!!






Jesse keeps telling me how much he loves that grandma is here with us now and that he's getting to spend time with her...we all are and we're lucky.



Pookie really loves our screened in deck and has claimed our storage box for her own personal hang out.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Total random stuff

I haven't had much free time to post this week and I do miss it when I don't get the chance to sit and write and reflect but sometimes that's how it goes...life comes at you pretty fast and you have to take the quiet moments when you get a chance.

Last sunday we took Alex to the city and enjoyed the Dinosaurs live show at Madison Square Garden and we enjoyed our family time. I had set up for mom to spend the day with Sylvie but as it turned out Jesse was home and was more than happy to chill out with his grandma all day and they went and had dinner at Sylvie's house. Here is a picture I took as we were leaving for our day in the city.
Here are a couple short videos I took with my cell phone at the show.




Alex was pretty wiped out when we were heading home and fell asleep on the train ride back, out like a light!


It was nice to enjoy our hot tub after a long day traveling to Manhattan and seeing a show! What a life, huh?

Mom is getting pretty adept at her self care skills and here she is in her bathroom doing her morning routine of washing up and brushing her teeth.



Phone calls from friends and family always brighten her day and here she is talking to Tammy from Florida, one of her most favorite and cherished neighbors. **waves to Tammy**


Pookie has to be watched constantly because she is a little thief and we cannot leave any food unattended in this house let me tell ya! She is watching Alex enjoying his soup like a hawk and hoping he will walk away for a moment so she can snatch some of it for herself. Mom and I thought it was pretty funny how she sat there like a statue watching Alex eat.



Luckily I have unlimited calls to Canada in my phone plan and mom was so happy to hear it and I dialed the number so that she can call her cousin, Madeleine , in Montreal. :) Here she is talking to her and smiling away.


Well, I've got a bathroom to clean so I better get myself off this chair for now.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Bathroom pictures

It occurred to me that I haven't posted any updated photos of mom's completed bathroom in our home so I figured now is a good time as any.







Yes, that is a bar of Ivory soap in the soap dish but I can tell you that it has now been replaced with Dove, are you happy Nancy?? HAHAHA!! Nothing is too good for our mom, right?

We had a nice visit tonight from my stepbrother, David and his wife along with their adorable kids. Alex and Tyler hit it off instantly and played in his room for the evening while the adults visited. We hope to visit them at their home soon so that Alex can enjoy the pool and hang out again with his new found 'cousin'. It was great for mom to see her grandchildren, that's for sure.

Mom also went out to lunch today with our neighbor, Nilda, and she had a lovely time and a yummy bowl of clam chowder soup and some whole wheat toast to go along with it.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

What did you do on friday night?

I went to a concert...again! Seems everything was bunched up at the same time but that's how the tickets fell...

Here's a video of one of the bands that I saw friday night, The Counting Crows. This is a great feel good song from the Shrek 2 soundtrack. I'll post more later, we're heading into the city to see the Walk with Dinosaurs Live show at Madison Square Garden this afternoon.



It's now sunday night and Jim, Alex and I had a good day in the city together and I will post pictures and such tomorrow when I have more time.

Here's another video of my night out on friday night, Maroon 5 was the headlining band that I saw, I really love their music and it was my first ever time seeing them so I was really happy that I got the chance to finally enjoy them live.