Wednesday, December 31, 2008

23 years ago

23 years ago this morning I got a phone call from mom that after only 28 days my beloved father had gone home to be with The Lord. Pancreatic cancer took him pretty quickly after we got the diagnosis but I'm quite sure that he had it for a long time before he showed symptoms and went to the doctor. Dad left us all with so many wonderful and happy memories because he certainly was not someone to sit around and do nothing, he was always on the go and our family did everything together and I'll always cherish all of those times.

So for today I'll share this picture of one of the many ski trips that were taken and I'm sure some will get a kick out of the goggles....errr....I mean glasses....and no that's not me.


Monday, December 29, 2008

Some Christmas Cheer

Wow, it's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone and my houseful of guests are all back to their lives and their respective homes. It was pretty crazy here for a few days but we all had a great time together and I will be cleaning for days but who cares!! I'll be finding pine needles for weeks, I'm sure....hmmm, wasn't my idea to have a real tree this year but that's okay, I don't really mind it much. Just some random pictures from Christmas Day...Alex playing his new Nerf game for the Wii which has mysteriously disappeared since sunday night...we haven't seen it since it was last spotted on the coffee table, who knows that happened to it with all of the boxes and wrapping paper that was flying around here over the weekend! I hope it turns up at some point in time.



Mom and Nancy opening a gift that mom received from Paul's dad and his wife, a lovely angel with the most beautiful wings that move and light up and she plays music, too.




Robert happy to see that he has gotten a full box of his favorite candy from Canada, marshmallow strawberries, THANK YOU MADELEINE for sending them to me for Robert, he was really surprised!



After opening all of our gifts here we went to spend time with Jim's family and had a wonderful dinner with everyone. It was hard because we all miss Jason so much, especially Alex...but we got through it and the meal was delicious and when I was helping to set up dessert I couldn't help but spy this little creation and I can't even begin to describe the laugh I got out of this thing...Jim said it looks like a 2 flusher, Alex said it looks like a poop so we called it a poop cake after a while. I have to say I had a slice and it was delicious!! I think it's just the extra 'bump' on the top that made it look weird!



Saturday I took a day for myself and had the opportunity to see Spamalot one more time and boy was I glad that I did, it was even funnier this time! I had a great time with my dear friend, Mary and I'm thrilled that I had the chance to see her for the holidays.


Afterwards I met my friend Paula and we had a quick dinner at John's pizzeria and made our way to the Blue Note Jazz Club where we enjoyed an evening of music by our favorite trumpet player! I'd never been to the Blue Note and it was awesome to see Chris Botti play in a small place like that, I hope to go again next year since he plays there every holiday season!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

I will post more when I have time to sit down for a few moments but wanted to share a couple of pictures really quickly. Jim played Santa for one of Robert's friends who has 3 little cousins and it was hilarious seeing him in the suit, Robert was cracking up and it was so much fun!



Mom, Nancy and I got matching flannel pajamas and we had to take a group photo, aren't we adorable? HAHAHA!

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you all had time to spend with loved ones as I did today.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Today is the day, let the holidays begin!!

Robert is finally home for good after serving 4 years and completing 2 tours of duty over in 'the sandbox' AKA Iraq!! After 2 flights with some delays and a couple of nights of partying with his buddies this is what I picked up at the airport this afternoon and I was so happy to see him!! I sure am glad I won't have to be saying any goodbyes to this child again!! Thank you, God, for bringing him home safely!




On the way home we decided to make a quick stop at Exit 49 just off the LIE to see Jim but as you can see he was a bit 'tied up' when we got there so we had to wait for him to come down. I cannot believe what my husband has to endure sometimes in his job on a daily basis but today I got to see it first hand...with the wind up there I'm quite sure it felt like it was below zero degrees up on that rig!

Finally on the ground and getting a hug from his son!



Sure is a good thing the beard keeps the face warm! If you work in a big office building with lots of glass you can thank someone like my husband for braving the elements to put it all up there.




We had a feast for dinner tonight prepared by yours truly and Alex is looking forward to bunking with his big brother tonight since he had to give up his room to our other guests...Uncle Robert and Aunt Michelle. :) Wednesday evening Nancy and Paul arrive and we will get to spend some really special and quality family time together....I hear Robert has put up a challenge...something about a Monopoly game...hmmmmm, should be interesting!!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

First snow!!


We had our first snow today and I have been waiting for this so that I could see Pookie's reaction to it all and boy was it worth the wait!!



First the precipitation was more like a frozen ice/hail type stuff so the deck was frozen and she was slipping and sliding all over the place and it was so funny to watch!



Daisy of course has been through a couple of winters already and loves to eat snow and she was busy trying to catch snowflakes in her mouth which I love to watch! She's so much fun in the fall and winter, this is her time of year being part Husky, of course!




Today mom did very well with her physical therapy and the therapist will come back 1 or 2 times this week which is great! We are starting the coumadin again but at a much lower dose and the levels are going to be checked twice a week at first to see how she does with the lower dosage. Hopefully we can get her levels at a therapeutic level so that we can prevent any more clotting from happening while we work to relieve the swelling in the leg from the existing clot that she has now. For now we are anticipating our visitors that will begin arriving on sunday!! Bring on Christmas and New Year's and then after that....well let's bring on SPRING!! HAHAHA!!

The cold months of winter are horrible and I have to say that January and February are my least favorite months of the year but at least there is some good television and I am looking forward (along with mom) to the new season of American Idol and also a new show starting next month called Superstars of Dance!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

It's thursday and the week is almost done!


It's almost Christmas and the decorations are up and it's pretty with all of the lights here, mom enjoys looking at the tree in the living room but this one is in her bedroom and it gives her the festive feeling right there nearby thanks to Nancy. :)

Yesterday was the 5 year anniversary of my stepdad's death and while mom doesn't always know the date or even the day of the week I think somehow she knew because she was very emotional yesterday, more than normal. Tomorrow is December 12th and it would have been their 16th wedding anniversary.

I've been doing a little crafting when I get a chance, I made a few holiday cards and used my new Martha Stewart branch punch which I love!!




This 2 page layout turned out cute, I love doing gingerbread with Alex every year but he didn't seem too interested in taking photos as usual...I had to manage with what I could get. Check out mom's little picture in the apron as she was enjoying the cookies as well. :)


11 days until Robert comes home!!

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Monday, December 08, 2008

Monday update

Mom was in the hospital until saturday, I couldn't get her out of there fast enough...I caught medication errors 3 times and if someone hadn't been there she would have been given meds at the wrong time or not received the ones she was meant to have. **Insert rolling eyes** You gotta love some hospitals, right? This is why if you have a family member who cannot speak for themselves whether they are not conscious or they are memory impaired like mom is you HAVE to be so careful and monitor everything.

The coumadin levels are back down and we will restart it again soon but at a much lower dose and get twice weekly lab work done, hopefully that will prevent anymore issues like this from coming up again.

I managed to attend Rock of Ages again yesterday and boy did I have a good time, it was better the second time around! I would see that show every week if I didn't have to trek all the way into Manhattan for it because sometimes you're at the mercy of the public transportation system like I was last night. What should have been a simple 1 hour and 20 minute ride home turned into a nightmare when there was a fatality on the tracks ahead of us at the next station! All service was suspended and they sent buses to take everyone to their stops, I was only 30 minutes from home and yet it took me until 10:20 to make it through the front door 3 hours later! Our bus driver even managed to get lost when she was seperated from the other buses, oh joy! But...having said all of that I made it home and I am glad that I went to the show and got to see my friends, Sandi, Sean and Jillian.

Thank God for my wonderful husband who yet again stepped up and took care of mom and got her bedtime medication for her and made sure she was ok until I got in. I don't know what I would do without him?

2 weeks until Robert gets home, holy cow!!! WooT!!!!!

And just because I thought it was really fun to post an old picture the other day....here's another one...circa 1974, man aren't those the coolest mittens I'm wearing? My mom knitted those for me. :-) I hope I burned that coat at some point, LOL!!

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Another setback

Mom is in the hospital right now because her coumadin levels were way too high so we need to get that adjusted. Please keep her in your prayers.

I was challenged by my friend Danni to post the 4th picture in the 4th album on my computer...boy is this old.

I have my photos set up by year on my computer...this is 1977...a picture of my sister Nancy at Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts....so she's like 7 here...and now she's 38. :) Thanks for the challenge, Danni...that was fun!