Blizzard 2009

Well here it is sunday night and it has been quite the weekend here with the amazing amount of snow that we got from a major storm that hit the east coast! I guess I was a bit shocked when I woke up this morning and saw the amount of the white stuff that actually was out there because the storm had a late start getting to us. I must admit that I underestimated it because at 3pm yesterday there was not a flake to be seen and in fact by 4pm we really only had a dusting on the ground but what a difference a day makes!!!

I was watching things all day yesterday and Jim went out for some steaks and other meats so that we had stuff to make for dinner and I just hung out and relaxed in the house and snapped a few photos, never really thinking that it would get THAT BAD!!! Man was I wrong!! You can see here the difference between yesterday and today with the tree on our front lawn. It took Jim most of the day to shovel our driveway because he had to do it himself, really...Jesse was stuck at the hotel where he works and couldn't come home and Robert decided this was a good weekend to head down to Atlantic City, who knows why??? I don't know how long it will take for all of this to melt but I'm sure it will be a while before I see my grass again, we got upwards of 2 feet of snow out there and some of the drifts are about 3-4 feet. It is not fun having 2 dogs in this situation, Jim had to dig a tunnel for them to even be able to get out of the side and back doors!! We had a large tent out the back door, that is now gone...crushed by the snow that was on top of it and then falling off the house during the night, the mangled metal was blocking the back door from being opened and Jim had to use a hack saw to cut it so that he could open the door for the dogs to get out into the yard. Ok...blizzard, I get your point...now please don't come back...this was just ridiculous...I'm all for some pretty white stuff for the holidays but this was way too much!!

My visit with Cole

Last weekend I traveled down to Virginia for the weekend to spend time with Nancy and Cole, Paul had been scheduled to take the day off work and go fishing with some of his buddies on friday but as it turned out he hurt his back at work and Nancy had to take him to the emergency room on friday night because he was in so much pain and he was having spasms so bad. In the end I think there was a reason that I was there because I was able to stay with little Cole and Nancy didn't have to worry about her son while she took care of her husband.


I had a wonderful weekend with my nephew and got lots of hugs and laughter and giggles from him, he is really growing up so fast which is why I have a lot of trips planned to see him in the coming months thanks to Megabus!!!




I love the fact that I can take a bus and be there in about 4 1/2 hours and it costs me next to nothing if I book far enough in advance, this past weekend the bus trip cost me $9 round trip! Whooo!! I love the double decker buses, it is so comfortable and going home on sunday morning I was sitting upstairs and in the front seat so I had a great view...here we are pulling out of the parking lot in DC and going through Chinatown before heading over to the northbound interstate.





Aunt Linda misses her little Cole already but I will see you for Christmas, I can't wait to show you off to Uncle Jimmy who hasn't seen you since July.





Just a little Cole love to share with my readers.

A day to remember....

December 12th...

17 years ago today I stood in a small and very beautiful church and watched my mom take a 2nd husband after being widowed for many years. I proudly read from the Bible for them and beamed as I saw the happiness in her eyes. Little did I know at the time that they would only be together on earth for 11 years and that my stepdad, Koop, would pass away on December 11th, 2003 and that mom would follow him to the gates of Heaven almost 6 years later. They were lucky to find love again after both of them lost their first loves to cancer and I was lucky to have both of them in my life for the time that I had them.

In my heart I know they are together again.

Mr and Mrs Koop walking down the aisle together!

Getting hit with rice!!

Dancing together for the first time as husband and wife.

A toast to our love!

This is the cake that I designed and made for mom and Koop's wedding, I enjoyed doing it for them and it was truly a labor of love, finished it at 3am the morning of the wedding. Jim made a mirror base for us to put it on and we transported it (carefully!!) to the reception hall in the snow! Yes, there was a snowstorm the day of the wedding but nothing could stop them from saying their vows.

November creeped up on me!!

Wow...I can't believe that it is just 2 weeks until Thanksgiving!!

Today is Veteran's Day and I am grateful for the 2 vets in my life, my husband and my son who are somewhere tonight celebrating and playing music.

I've been busy the last couple of weeks that's for sure. Those who know me wouldn't be surprised to hear that I've been to some concerts in recent weeks. On the 22nd of October I had the privilege of seeing Five for Fighting live for the first time!! What a great acoustic show, I couldn't have asked for a better evening with my friend Paula. John from FFF is such an amazing person and a great supporter of our troops, I have to say that my favorite song on the latest CD has to be Note to the Unknown Soldier...incredible song!!

On the 29th I took an indian cooking class and I learned a valuable lesson...my digestive system doesn't like curry...nope...that will not be in my diet ever again...but it was a fun class all the same. Alex had a good Halloween this year and was able to go Trick or Treating with his friend, Sean.

I started the month of November off with a great day in the city with my good friend Sandi. We had lunch at Junior's in the heart of the theatre district in NYC and then we saw an Off Broadway show, The Altar Boyz. I didn't know what to expect but it was hilarious and I truly enjoyed it!

November 4th I spent the evening with my favorite greek boy, Constantine Maroulis and my friend Paula. WOW...A NIGHT AT THE ROCK SHOW was a great night and I totally enjoyed every song that he did...there is nothing quite like 80's rock music.

This past saturday I went to a Pampered Chef show at my sister in law's house. Ok...I have to admit that I had never been to a Pamperef Chef party before and I didn't know that to expect but I had a great time and ate amazing food and learned a lot! One of the things that I didn't realize was that I had a lot of Pampered Chef stuff already...from the stuff that mom had in her own kitchen that I inherited...I didn't know a lot of it was Pampered chef...but now I know...so I'm planning to have my own party in December because now I want more stuff and the best way to earn free stuff is to have your own party, right?? :-)

Tonight I am watching the CMA awards and I can't help but think about mom...I think about how much she loved Tim McGraw and him coming out of retirement and how she would have loved to watch this show tonight.

Baseball playoffs!

You have to love the excitement this time of year, even if your favorite team isn’t in the post-season!

 

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A day in NYC!

August 28th

I had planned out another really fun day for Alex in NYC to continue his birthday celebration...I have to laugh because I have some friends who celebrate their birthday "month" and maybe that is what I did for Alex this past year and I truly enjoyed every memory that I made with him.

We took the train into the city and met up with my friend Sandi who had her mom and her daughter joining her for a day of fun, as well. First stop would be lunch at Junior's which is in Shubert Alley in the heart of the theatre district. After a great lunch we made our way just across the street from the Shubert theatre to the Titanic Exposition and as luck would have it I was able to score a 20% discount...thanks Nancy!


I loved walking around and seeing all of the artifacts that were brought up from the bottom of the ocean and reading the stories of the passengers on that voyage. Alex liked it to a point but started to lose interest toward the end so we finished up and went to wait for Sandi and her family in the gift shop/snack bar area. I think by far my favorite was the way they recreated the staircase in the grand ballroom, it was so beautiful.


Our next stop was a ride on the NYC Ducks tour! This was so cool because you board on land and ride around some of the sights of the city and then you head down to the Hudson river and splash down for a ride in the water!

Alex and I waiting in our seats for the ride to begin!

The NYC skyline behind me as we are riding in the Hudson River.

I was so excited for Alex when the captain of the boat let him drive for a few moments while we were in the Hudson! What an awesome thrill and memory for him to have, he couldn't wait to come home and tell dad what he did on his day out! This was a great day overall and I'm so happy that Alex enjoyed himself.

I am so behind in my blog

I really need to get caught up because I know when I get ready to scrapbook some of these adventures I won't remember a lot of the details and that makes me nuts!!

On August 23rd we went to CitiField to see the Mets play again and Alex brought his friend, Matty, with him since we had 4 tickets and Robert didn't want to join us this time.

We had really nice seats, even though we were in the outfield we were front row and having been up in the nosebleeds the last game this was a better vantage point in my book! We enjoyed our afternoon and the game was pretty exciting even if the Mets lost. We were threatening in the end but the Phillies pulled off a triple play to win it! It was insane. **Note to self-do not get tickets to a Mets-Phillies game next season...too many Phillies fans make the trip to NY and are annoying!! HAHAHA!**



August 24th and 25th I took Alex to the beach. Honestly I have to say that even though we live just 3 miles from the Atlantic ocean and the beach I have never been a beach person but for some reason this summer I spent some time on the beach and realized that I have been missing out! Look out next summer!! I have lived on Long Island for almost half of my life and I had never been to any of the Fire Island beaches which is pretty funny. On the 24th I was meeting my good friend Paula to spend the afternoon at Sailor's Haven with our kids. You have to take a ferry over to this beach and it was so wonderful to spend the afternoon there because not everyone will spend the money to park and then pay for the ferry over but it was so worth it because it was not crowded and the kids had such an amazing time together which allowed the moms to just relax and chat.

Alex being silly on the ferry ride!

The water was so warm and the kids really loved swimming and spending time together, I think I have been missing out all these years and I plan to enjoy the beach more next year for sure.


"Mom, can we come back here again tomorrow?"

Mystic trip

To continue Alex's birthday week I had booked a trip to Mystic, CT and planned loads of fun stuff. Dad was working so it was just a boy and his mom for an overnight trip. We set out early in the morning for the 45 minute drive to the ferry out of Orient Point which is the end of Long Island on the north side for those of you who don't know where we live. You can check out the map, we live in Shirley and we drove all the way to the end of the island so all the way to the right. :) It was a great drive and Alex enjoyed watching the sun rising. It was very foggy as we got into Greenport and the visibility was pretty bad but I slowed down and we made it just fine and got on the ferry for the hour ride over to Connecticut.


It took a while for the fog to lift and there wasn't much to see on the ride over so I was a bit disappointed since it was Alex's first time riding on a ferry but he seemed to be enjoying just being out there and watching the water all the same.


The fog lifted when we got over to the other side and it was really a lovely day and we watched the sights as we docked into New London.


We arrived at our hotel and dropped our stuff and walked across the street (yes I planned that out so that we were across the street!!) to the Mystic Aquarium and spent the afternoon enjoying the exhibits and some lunch.




I would have to say that the highlight of the day was our time in the bird exhibit...Alex absolutely loved the fact that he could feed and even sometimes pet a bird!!! I loved taking a million pictures, of course!





We finished off our day with dinner at Mystic Pizza and if you aren't familiar with the movie, check it out. Aside from the fact that a movie was filmed here, the pizza is out of this world!!!


Alex enjoyed the indoor pool until 10:00 that night once we got back to our hotel and then promptly passed out cold and allowed me some quiet time to read my book before I drifted off after a long and full day. I thought about the fact that I was spending a lot of time making memories for him this summer because our circumstances didn't allow us to do very much last summer and yet at the same time I feel that we were all so very blessed to have the time that we did to spend with mom last summer while she was living with us.

The next morning we got up and had a delicious breakfast buffet and checked out of our room and Alex wanted to just swim and I allowed him the freedom on this trip to do whatever he wanted, this was his birthday vacation and although I told him we could go to Mystic Seaport he didn't want to go, he just wanted to play in the indoor pool and I said that would be fine and so for 4 hours he did just that...swim, swim and swim some more! I literally read 10 scrapbooking magazines that I had brought with me while he was in the pool.



I had wanted us to visit the Mystic Seaport but Alex didn't want to so that was fine with me...he changed his mind at the last minute and it was kind of late so we just checked out the store and looked around a bit and decided that we would go back next summer for sure.

We headed back to the ferry and the ride home was lovely, the sun was setting and the colors of the sky is something we will not soon forget.

More August stuff

August 18th was Alex's 12th birthday and since his birthday falls in the summer it is hard to have a party with kids from school so usually I let him invite a friend for a fun day or give him a shopping spree of his choice. I guess this year I let him have both, who knows...I could have been over compensating for having lost his cousin and his grandma in the last year. Here we are setting out for our fun filled day.




After picking up his friend, Matty, our first stop was the paintball store when I spent a ridiculous amount of money to make a kid's birthday a happy one...yeah I got a lot of hugs for that shopping spree, trust me. Do you have any idea how much it cost for a paintball gun barrel? Insane!! Let's just say the American Express card was letting off steam after I walked out of there!




It was then off to Alex's choice of play, the local amusement park for an afternoon of games and rides. First on the ticket...rock climbing and I have to say that Alex was a champion climber and hit all 3 bells pretty quickly!



Last year when Alex turned 11 Jim and I had taken him to this same park for his birthday and I remember how mad he was that he wasn't tall enough to ride the Go-Karts alone to the point that he was obnoxious about it and we almost took him home...imagine that? HAHA! So this year I was praying...I knew the height requirement was 58" and at the last checkup he was 57" so I told him that when he got up to the ruler he needed to really stand up straight and stretch his neck out!! Well....HE MADE IT!! Man was he happy, he rode those things 3 times...but alas, Matty didn't make the cut...he wasn't so happy...but he did manage to ride the roller coaster a few times while Alex was on the Go-Karts.

Go Alex!!

We really enjoyed the afternoon, Alex and Matty played a round of mini-golf and then went on the bumper boats before we headed back home to wait for Jim to get home from work so that we could go out to a birthday dinner.




We all went to Applebee's for dinner and it was yummy! Of course I couldn't resist telling the waitress that we were celebrating a birthday while Alex was off playing one of the video games in the restaurant.

All of the wait staff is singing loudly to him!

That is not a sunburn on his cheeks!!

Happy Birthday Alex! :-)

Crop Classix Weekend

So it's been over a month since I went to my scrapbook weekend and I haven't had much time to scrap since much less blog but I thought I would take a few moments this morning over my coffee to post a little bit about it.


It was great to see my friends, Regina and Karen again (we met in New Jersey at my last weekend) and get to sit with them and chat and crop together.



Regina's daughter, Emma, sat next to me and I enjoyed watching her creativity. I hope to see them again at future crops! I love the hotel we stayed at, I loved all the food (maybe a little too much, hehehe) and I thought that Mindi and her brother did an amazing job running the crop and would go to another Crop Classix in the future for sure! Just all of the dies and tools they had for everyone to use was like being in a candy store! I spent a couple of hours on saturday night when others had gone to bed just using up my card stock scraps and cutting words and titles and shapes galore!! Here are just a few layouts I completed. Enjoy!!

First day of school

Alex started the 7th grade...how is that possible? I can't believe that next year he will be a teenager and I feel as though he was just a baby yesterday? Time has a way of getting away from you if you don't watch out...we certainly have to live each day to the fullest and cherish all of the memories.

Of course when I took out the camera he said I wasn't taking a picture and I said, "Listen here...we are getting a picture of your first day of 7th grade so you choose...inside or outside...!!!" He posed in the house and then when he wasn't looking I snapped one of him waiting for the bus. I'm so sneaky but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do!!

Now let's see if I can rewind a bit and continue with my summertime fun memories.

The weekend of August 14th, 15th and 16th was my long awaited scrapbooking retreat. It was my first time attending a Crop Classix event and boy did I enjoy myself!!! This was held at the Marriott in Trumbull, CT and the location couldn't have been more convenient for a summertime crop as far as I'm concerned! First of all it was about a 10 minute drive after I got over to Connecticut once I got off the Pt Jefferson/Bridgeport Ferry and since I absolutely LOVE the convenience of riding the ferry it was ideal for me! That friday morning was picture perfect weather and I got to the ferry early and just walked around a bit until it was time to pull the cars on board and then I settled into a deck chair to enjoy the sun and the view as we started making our way across the Long Island sound.

Right before I snapped this photo I sent Nancy a text that said, "Well Stimpy....dis is dee life!!" For those of you who ever watched, Ren and Stimpy you'll know what that is.



It was about halfway to Connecticut and I was just relaxing and chatting with some random woman sitting nearby when I glanced over and saw a young man on a cell phone and I realized, "Hey...I know that guy...", imagine my surprise when I found my niece, her husband and their little baby daughter on board!!

So we enjoyed chatting and I told them I was heading to a scrapbook weekend and they told me they were heading up north to visit some of Brad's college buddies for the weekend. Totally cool to run into them and get a snapshot overlooking the sound. It truly was a perfect day for crossing over to Connecticut and I enjoyed every second of it.

I did spend some time reflecting on the last time I had been on that ferry...last October when I went to Hartford for the Creating Keepsakes Convention. That ride was sad for me because Nancy had called to tell me that mom's MRI showed that her cancer was growing and that she would have to get some other type of treatment (we later learned she would have surgery to remove the tumors). So this day I looked out over the water and enjoyed the warm august sunshine on my face and thought about mom and how I miss her but also I smiled to know that she loved riding the ferry with my stepdad and doing fun things with him...I know she would have been happy that I was doing something for myself.

More about the scrapbook weekend in my next post...